No. 8 Gonzaga withstands late wave from San Francisco, stays unbeaten in WCC with 68-66 win| Analysis

It was more act of survival than impressive closing job.

When Tyon Grant-Foster knocked down a wing 3-pointer stretching Gonzaga’s lead to 10 points with under two minutes remaining Saturday night, there was a collective exhale from 6,000 fans at McCarthey Athletic Center who’d watched a comfortable 14-point advantage shrivel to three points down the stretch against San Francisco.

For a moment or two, the lead was safe and the vibes were good.

Ninety seconds later, it was right back to tension and stress.

Playing without top scorers Graham Ike and Braden Huff for the third straight game, the eighth-ranked Zags fluctuated between good, great and subpar in a contest where they didn’t commit a turnover for more than 27 minutes but didn’t make a 3-pointer for nearly 25.

The final verdict from a nervy 68-66 victory over the Dons at McCarthey Athletic Center? Good enough.

“I don’t know if we closed it out great, we survived,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “But you know what, we survived on the defensive end which is what we were doing all night. We were playing phenomenal defense, we started the game with just a phenomenal stretch of defense, then we just kept tapping into that throughout this whole game. It came down to, we just needed one stop and we got it and that was the difference.”

It could’ve easily gone in San Francisco’s favor, though.

Searching for their first victory in Spokane since 1989 and first win over Gonzaga in 36 tries, the Dons got right to work erasing a 10-point deficit. Legend Smiley drained a 3-pointer, Vukasin Masic knocked down another and San Francisco caught a break when Gonzaga’s Davis Fogle missed a driving layup short, setting up Masic’s next 3-pointer.

The Zags followed with another empty offensive possession when Mario Saint-Supery stepped out of bounds dribbling along the baseline, giving the Dons an opportunity to tie the game with a 2-pointer or take the lead with a 3-pointer.

With 29 seconds remaining, USF called a timeout and designed a play to create a look from behind the arc. Not a surprising call – or a bad one – considering the Dons had already drilled a season-high 13 3-pointers at a 51.8% clip.

“We definitely were going to shoot a 3 on the last possession,” USF coach Chris Gerlufsen. “I don’t think, coming here and having a chance to win in regulation, even if we score a 2 the odds of winning in overtime were probably drastically smaller than going for it in regulation.”

The wrong USF player got the look.

Masic set a ghost screen that briefly created an open look for the transfer guard, but Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley quickly recovered to eliminate the threat. The Dons went to the next action, using another screen to manufacture a shot for junior forward Barry Wang, who released the ball right before Warley could close in.

Wang’s shot clanged against the backboard and USF missed a follow-up opportunity, allowing Gonzaga to escape with the two-point win.

“It was a little bit of a broken play, we were trying to get Masic a 3 on a run behind because he’d just hit two,” Gerlufsen said. “But at the end of the day, we had two on the ball and made a pretty good play to throw back to Barry. Barry’s been shooting an incredibly high percentage in league play and for him to have a wing 3, relatively clean look – our guys thought he got fouled but I don’t know, they’re not giving you that in the moment anyway.

“I would take that … I thought it was in when it left his hand.”

For everything they did well, the eighth-ranked Zags had to overcome a number of deficiencies to survive a third straight game without leading scorer Ike wasn’t wearing a boot on his right foot for the first time since suffering an ankle injury nine days earlier but wasn’t feeling good enough to return to the court. Huff wasn’t on Gonzaga’s bench for the third straight game and missed his fourth consecutive WCC contest.

Once again, the Zags to go elsewhere for offensive production.

Warley scored 19 points, Fogle had 15 and Grant-Foster chipped in 15 more for a Gonzaga team that had to overcome one of its worst shooting nights of the year and also USF’s best.

The Zags didn’t have a 3-pointer, missing eight straight looks before point guard Braeden Smith connected with 15 minutes, 14 seconds to play. They finished just 3 of 18 from deep.

Ball security was a strength until it wasn’t. Impressively, Gonzaga went nearly 18 minutes without giving the ball away until Saint-Supery’s turnover at the 12 minute, 42-second mark of the second half. The Zags then proceeded to commit six more turnovers in the final 10 minutes.

“Yeah, we didn’t finish the game ideally the way we wanted,” Few said. “There was just a couple bonehead plays that we could’ve been a little bit smarter on.”

The Zags did enough, barely, to keep their perfect record intact and improved to 4-0 in games where at least one of their touted frontcourt players wasn’t available. GU’s won three games with both Braden Huff and Ike sidelined.

Ike will have another week to rest and recover before Gonzaga (21-1, 9-0) takes the floor for the first of two regular-season matchups with Saint Mary’s (19-3, 8-1). Tipoff between the longtime WCC rivals is at 7:30 p.m. and ESPN will carry the live broadcast.

Smiley made five 3-pointers and paced the Dons with 18 points while Ryan Beasley knocked down four treys and scored 14 points.

USF was dialed in from the 3-point line, but the Dons finished just 8 of 27 on 2-point attempts and committed 15 turnovers.