Gonzaga’s Tyon Grant-Foster finding scoring form in conference | Takeaways
Three observations at the buzzer from Gonzaga’s 84-60 West Coast Conference win over Pepperdine on Wednesday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Grant-Foster finding groove in conference
Tyon Grant-Foster opened the WCC season with 18, 18 and 19 points against Pepperdine, San Diego and Seattle U. He came close to double digits in two of the next four games, but finished with nine points against Loyola Marymount and Seattle U.
The 6-foot-7 senior forward was back in double figures with 12 points against the Waves. He got off to a slow start, but heated up later in the half, accounting for eight straight GU points as the Zags’ lead reached 18 points.
Grant-Foster’s production has picked up in WCC play compared to the nonconference portion of GU’s schedule. He’s averaging 12.4 points in conference on 58.7% shooting from the field. He’s 6 of 9 on 3-pointers (66.7%).
In nonconference, Grant-Foster averaged 10.7 points on 45.1% shooting, including 17.9% behind the 3-point line.
Mixing and matching
With Graham Ike missing his second straight game due to a right ankle injury, Gonzaga continued tinkering with its rotations. Jalen Warley started in place of Ike, but he picked up his third foul early in the second half and played just 21 minutes.
Walk-on forward Noah Haaland saw double-digit minutes for the first time in his two seasons with the Zags. He played 11 minutes and finished with 10 points on 4 of 4 shooting and four rebounds. His previous career high was six minutes in Saturday’s win over Seattle U.
Freshman forward Parker Jefferson, who is scheduled to redshirt, went through pregame warmups for the second straight game but didn’t play. Nine Zags played at least 16 minutes with freshman guard Davis Fogle logging a team-high 25 minutes.
Numerically speaking
Gonzaga (20-1, 8-0 WCC) extended a bunch of streaks with the rout over the Waves. GU has won 51 straight in the series, second in Division I history behind UCLA’s 52-game winning streak over Cal from 1961-85.
This is the last scheduled game between the two teams with Gonzaga leaving the WCC for the rebuilt Pac-12 next season. It’s unlikely they would meet in the WCC tournament with GU currently in first place and the Waves in last.
The teams could potentially schedule a nonconference contest in the future. Zags coach Mark Few is 55-2 against Pepperdine, which was GU’s primary rival when he took over as head coach in 1999-2000. The Waves’ last win over Gonzaga was in January 2002.
The victory clinched Gonzaga’s 29th consecutive 20-win season – the second longest active streak behind Kansas (37). Prior to the last 28 seasons, GU had eight 20-win seasons since 1907-08.
Gonzaga also registered another “kill shot” (scoring run of at least 10 points) with a 10-spurt in the first half. The Zags lead the nation with 30 kill shots this season.