Second-half lapses costly vs. Saint Mary’s | Zags Insiders Podcast
Gonzaga was halfway to an outright West Coast Conference championship Saturday.
Twenty minutes of game time later, the Zags had to settle for a co-title with rival Saint Mary’s, which rallied for a 70-59 victory in Moraga.
In the latest Zags Insiders Podcast, former Gonzaga center Richard Fox and yours truly discussed what went wrong for GU in the second half.
Here are a few excerpts, edited for space considerations. Find the entire podcast at: https://youtu.be/AphSobwMWCw or https://www.spokesman.com/podcasts/zags-basketball-insiders.
Breaking down the breakdowns
Fox: Gonzaga scored less than 0.8 points per possession (in the second half), Saint Mary’s was just under 1.5. Saint Mary’s shot less than 40% from the field, but obviously got going from 3.
The offensive rebounds, particularly in the middle of second half, were backbreakers. You saw some really odd decisions to leave shooters to go double or dig down, particularly against (Paulius) Murauskas, a guy who hasn’t really got going (against Gonzaga). As a staff you watch this and scratch your head, where is this decision-making coming from and understanding who you’re guarding and time and score.
On the offensive side of the ball, Saint Mary’s threw extra bodies at Graham (Ike) but (Andrew) McKeever and (Harry) Wessels as well were very disciplined on overplaying Graham on his right shoulder and forcing him to have to turn over his left shoulder, which is either going to force a right-handed hook or fadeaway. In the first half, they made mistakes on that end.
Saint Mary’s didn’t have to help as much as I thought they might. They were just closing out short, not having to fly out on shooters. They played off Tyon Grant-Foster, not 12 feet but a solid 8 feet. That gives (Dillan) Shaw time to see where he’s going and try to absorb that contact. That (point guards Mario Saint-Supery and Braeden Smith combining for two points and four assists) is really hard to overcome.”
Meehan: Gonzaga led 36-29 at half, which sounds great, but it did not reflect how much they outplayed Saint Mary’s. I thought the lead should have been 12, 14 points, and I had that nagging feeling it was going to come back to bite them.
They spent that lead in three or four possessions. (The Gaels) did it kind of the way they did it the whole half – they hit a bunch of 3s. Mikey Lewis tends to run hot or cold against the Zags. They caught him on a heater.
Gonzaga had two real issues. Their offense came to a stop. Saint Mary’s completely took away Ike. (Wessels and McKeever) did a pretty nice job on Ike with the guys around them pitching in as well. There were no other answers. In the first half, (Adam) Miller was hitting floaters, Grant-Foster was getting to the rim, they had some transition points, which were completely shut down in the second half.
Gonzaga got lost in coverage. One play where Miller and (Davis) Fogle were guarding the same guy and left a 3-point shooter open. They dug down a couple times so hard they got lost (trying to recover). Wessels picked them off a couple times with that huge body, making (the defender) get around him to get out to a shooter and they couldn’t do it.
You give up offensive rebounds after guarding well and they get it back and score, that’s the baseball equivalent of your starting pitcher throwing seven shutout innings and your bullpen blows it. It kills your morale.