Gonzaga’s Graham Ike enters rarefied air with second WCC MOP honor: ‘Arguably the best low-post scorer in college basketball’ | Rewind
LAS VEGAS – It’s tough to beat a team three times in the same season.
Categorically tougher than that? Beating any Gonzaga team on the final day of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
The top-seeded Zags knew they’d be in for a challenge facing a confident, motivated, revenge-minded Santa Clara group that dropped both regular-season games to Mark Few’s program.
Now consider what the Broncos were up against. Gonzaga entered Tuesday’s game with a 55-6 overall record at the WCC Tournament under Few and 42-1 against teams not named Saint Mary’s during the coach’s tenure.
“They’re a top-10 team in the country, for good reason,” Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek said. “… Offensively, they are really something to try to tackle.”
The Broncos got a few solid hits in, but couldn’t bring the WCC’s goliath down, losing 79-68 at Orleans Arena.
We take a deeper look at how it happened as Gonzaga captured its 23rd and final championship as a member of the WCC.
Join the club
The list of players to win multiple WCC Tournament Most Outstanding Player awards is fairly small and heavily dominated by Gonzaga – no real surprise for the school that’s captured all but six championships since 2000.
It’s also a list that now includes Graham Ike, who was named WCC MOP after totaling 39 points and 15 rebounds over two days at Orleans Arena.
Before Ike, three other Gonzaga players had won the award twice: Dan Dickau (2001, 2002), Adam Morrison (2005, 2006) and Kyle Wiltjer (2015, 2016). The only non-GU player to leave with multiple honors was Hank Gathers, the former Loyola Marymount star who led the Lions to consecutive titles in 1988 and 1989.
Ike started building a strong case for himself with a 24-point, 11-rebound double-double in Monday’s semifinal victory over Oregon State – his 14th of the season.
The numbers didn’t look as good, but Ike was every bit as impressive Tuesday facing a Santa Clara frontcourt that almost always sent multiple bodies at the forward, using double teams and traps to limit his scoring opportunities.
Ike stayed patient, taking just two shots in the first half before identifying additional scoring avenues in the second, when he’d score 11 of his 15 points. The WCC Player of the Year finished 7 of 7 from the field, scoring in double digits without missing a shot for just the sixth time in his career and fourth time at Gonzaga.
“I think (we defended him) about as well we you can,” Santa Clara’s Herb Sendek said. “That’s always a great sign that a guy’s really good if he’s 7 for 7 and has 15 points and you’re crediting the defense for a good job. That just speaks to his brilliance. He is arguably the best low-post scorer in all of college basketball.
“But yeah, we were determined to limit his catches the best we could. We sprinkled in a trap, which I thought for the most part was pretty effective. We gave it our best shot on him. At least prevented him from having one of his crazy 35-point games.”
Ike had almost exactly that many, scoring 34 in Gonzaga’s first meeting with Santa Clara this season and came in averaging 21.8 points in six previous matchups against the Broncos. He’d led the team in scoring 10 straight games before handing that title over to Mario Saint-Supery, who had 21 points Tuesday.
“He just delivers night in, night out,” Few said of Ike. “Two guys on him, three guys on him and always delivers in the toughest and tightest moments.”
Tyon triples up
Tyon Grant-Foster had a solid track record at Orleans Arena entering this week’s tournament, winning all five games he played in the building at Grand Canyon, which won Western Athletic Conference Tournament championships in 2024 and 2025.
That may have been the first sign Grant-Foster would probably deliver for Gonzaga this week in Vegas.
The other? Grant-Foster scored 20 points and brought down seven rebounds in his last outing against Santa Clara, a 94-86 win at the Leavey Center, and was impactful in the first meeting between the teams, scoring seven points on 3 of 4 shooting while tallying three assists.
Grant-Foster looked right at home and helped key the second-half surge that allowed Gonzaga to overcome an early deficit and rally to win its third game against Santa Clara.
“It means everything, for real,” Grant-Foster told ESPN’s Sean Farnham on the postgame podium. “I told B-Huff (Braden Huff) before that I’m undefeated in this building.”
Make it seven wins, zero losses for Grant-Foster at Orleans Arena after the latest result. The wing scored 95 points over five WAC Tournament games before adding 28 this week, with 20 of those coming in Tuesday’s championship tilt. Grant-Foster finished 7 of 11 from the field, 2 of 3 from the 3-point line and 4 of 7 from the free throw line, adding seven rebounds and two assists to earn WCC All-Tournament honors.
“It’s great, it’s so great, everything he’s been through,” Few said. “I think it’s been hard. I think sometimes it’s even hard trusting us that it’s all going to turn out. I always tell these guys, eventually every dog has his day. They just will. You get in these high competitive games like this, they’re really physical, players have got to make plays and he can make plays.”
Grant-Foster announced his decision to join Gonzaga’s roster last spring, but still faced a mountain of hurdles to become eligible, ultimately earning a preliminary injunction in Spokane County Court one week before the team’s first game. The 26-year-old wing faced life-threatening and potentially career-altering heart conditions during his second college stop at DePaul, but was eventually cleared to return to the court.
“It’s amazing, he fought so hard to get to this moment,” wing Jalen Warley said. “As a team, we kind of felt like we were robbed of a great summer with him. We knew it had a bigger purpose, things always happen for a reason. Just really seeing how he’s approached every single day, trying to figure out on a really talented team, where his moments will come from. I think he’s just showed up every day and tried to get a little better.
“Especially against a team like Santa Clara, if you let him get out in space and use his athleticism, you’re going to see some SportsCenter Top 10 moments. He showed that tonight.”
Huff update
The final seconds ticked off the clock and roughly 10 more went by before Ike found himself in a long embrace with Huff, the first teammate Gonzaga’s senior forward tracked down when the buzzer sounded at Orleans Arena.
It was an emotional moment for the close friends and teammates, who’ve had a tight relationship since Ike arrived in Spokane three years ago and formed one of the most potent frontcourt tandems in the country before Huff was sidelined with a left knee injury in early January.
“We knew how much this mattered to B-Huff, how much he wanted to be with us on that floor and be fighting with us,” Ike said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s just the game and I’m just so proud of him for the way he’s handled this situation, the positivity he’s brought every single day. I haven’t seen one dull moment in B-Huff, man. I’m just so thankful and grateful I could spend such great time with a brother like him.”
Huff was averaging 17.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and making an astounding 66.2% of his shots from the field – one of the top clips in the country – before injuring his knee in practice the day before Gonzaga’s Jan. 15 game at Washington State.
The school estimated Huff would miss four to eight weeks with the injury, but the junior’s recovery has taken longer than initially expected. Huff started walking without crutches this week at the WCC Tournament and recently began participating in light workouts and shooting drills.
“B-Huff is walking around, jogging around and shooting some now,” Few said. “That’s encouraging, we’ll see if we can get there.”
The Zags haven’t made a final ruling on Huff, but the forward would still need to make considerable progress to return before or during the NCAA Tournament. Declaring Huff out for the season before Selection Sunday could conceivably damage Gonzaga’s seed line at the NCAA Tournament.
After an early bracket reveal last month, NCAA Selection Committee Chair Keith Gill told NCAA reporter Andy Katz a season-ending ACL injury to Texas Tech star JT Toppin prompted committee members to bump the Red Raiders down to a No. 4 seed and elevate Gonzaga to a No. 3.
The Zags, who’ve accumulated a 12-2 record in games without Huff, are in good position to earn a No. 3 seed at the Big Dance. They improved to 11-2 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games with Tuesday’s win and 7-2 against teams projected to make the field of 68.