Davis Fogle delivers, free throw line doesn’t for No. 8 Gonzaga in narrow victory against San Francisco | Rewind
Gonzaga came out on the wrong end of all nine one- or two-possession games it played in last season, watching its season come to an end with a five-point loss to No. 1 Houston in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The eighth-ranked Zags haven’t encountered as many of those scenarios this season, but a 2-0 record in “close games” – those decided by one or two possessions – could bode well for a team that may find itself in a few more before the regular season ends.
Gonzaga still has five more matchups with the four teams sitting directly below Mark Few’s team in the West Coast Conference standings and it’s unclear if or when the Zags will be back at full strength, playing three games without frontcourt starters Graham Ike and Braden Huff.
The Zags recently won their second game against that cluster of teams, prevailing 68-66 against San Francisco at McCarthey Athletic Center. We take a look at how it happened Saturday evening in our latest Gonzaga rewind.
Learning lessons
Other than Jalen Warley and Tyon Grant-Foster, freshman wing Davis Fogle had the biggest role in extending Gonzaga’s lead to double digits late in the second half.
Fogle tied Grant-Foster with 15 points, hauled down a season-high nine rebounds and tallied two steals while logging a season-high 32 minutes. He shot 6 of 15 from the field and 1 of 6 from the 3-point line.
Late in the game, Fogle also committed a pair of mistakes that could’ve been costly had the Dons walked out of the Kennel with a victory.
With Gonzaga leading by five points and just 67 seconds to play, Fogle drove to the basket 10 seconds into the shot clock and challenged a pair of San Francisco defenders at the rim. Fogle’s layup came up short, giving San Francisco an opportunity to trim the deficit to two points with Vukasin Masic’s 3-pointer five seconds later.
Few’s been complimentary of Fogle as he’s watched his role expand in recent games, but the Gonzaga coach also addressed the teaching points he’d make to the freshman in the wake of his recent errors.
“Don’t help in at the end of the game when they’re trying to shoot 3s & if you’re going to take it to the rack in a two-possession game, you sure as hell better make it,” Few said. “How’s that for teaching?”
Fogle’s been a reliable source of production since Ike and Huff were sidelined with injuries. The native of Anacortes, Washington, has been the only Zag to score in double figures during the recent three-game stretch, averaging 15 points per game against USF, Pepperdine and Seattle U.
“I know these guys trust me,” Fogle said. “For me, I’ve kind of been the guy on all my teams my whole life but I think I’ve been doing a good job even when I wasn’t playing early in the year just staying ready, staying in the gym. Then I kind of knew at some point my time was going to come, so I feel like I’ve just been ready for it.
“Really all credit to these guys. These guys trust me, they’ve got my back, I’ve got theirs.”
Dons’ dilemma
In Chris Gerlufsen’s first season at San Francisco, the Dons played three games against a Gonzaga team that was led by the school’s all-time scoring leader, Drew Timme.
In the six games that followed, USF didn’t have to worry about Timme, but scheming for Ike and Huff didn’t prove to be much easier.
For the first time since taking the job at USF, Gerlufsen went into a game with Gonzaga unsure if the Dons would have to match up with an elite Zags post player.
Huff was set to miss his fourth straight game with a left knee injury and Ike was considered questionable with right ankle soreness, ultimately sitting out for the third time in as many games.
“I thought (assistant) coach (Kyle) Bankhead and our staff did a really good job,” Gerlufsen said. “We had two different game plans, one if Ike plays and if he doesn’t. … Tried to prepare our guys for what it would look like with the small-ball lineup and as I said, I’ve been really impressed watching that over the last few games in the lead up to this.”
The Zags are accustomed to winning the battle in the paint against the Dons and managed to do so again on Saturday, outscoring them 36-12 despite playing a small-ball lineup most of the game.
“They still got us in the paint without having those two forces inside,” Gerlufsen said. “It was a different kind of getting into the paint. They tried to space us out and get downhill and I thought they did a good job of drawing some fouls and getting to the free -throw line. It was a different kind of paint distribution than it normally looks like, but they did a good job of adjusting.”
Foul -line frustration
You can find Gonzaga at or near the top of the WCC in a handful of offensive and defensive categories.
One of the few exceptions? Free -throw percentage.
The Zags rank second-to-last in the league and No. 250 in the nation shooting free throws at a 69% clip.
Saturday’s showing didn’t help Gonzaga’s season percentage from the foul line as five players combined to go 11 of 22 (50%). It wasn’t Gonzaga’s lowest percentage of the year, but probably the Zags’ worst outing when considering both attempts and percentage.
In an 83-68 win over Oklahoma, Gonzaga made just 5 of 11 (45%) from the free -throw line. The Zags finished 4 of 10 (40%), converting at their lowest percentage of the year in an 82-47 blowout of LMU.
“Golly man, we got to the free -throw line and just didn’t step up,” Few said. “That’s disappointing. We’ve been shooting 100 a day now for a month and a half. Obviously we need to kind of step up and do a much, much better job of that.”
Gonzaga’s free -throw shooting had been trending in the right direction before Saturday’s game. The Zags made at least 69% of their attempts in the last four games since shooting 50% against LMU.
Tyon Grant-Foster, who’s made just 60% of his individual free -throw attempts this season, went just 2 of 8 from the line against USF. Jalen Warley led the Zags in that department, making 5 of 7.
“Shoot, if we make our free throws it’s not even a game,” Grant-Foster said. “We win by 15 points. It’s really on us. We’re a team, we can beat ourselves at times, but if we play the game the right way, play together, we can compete with anybody.”