Gonzaga defense holds off second-half surge in 84-63 win over WSU

It wasn’t always pretty, but whenever the Gonzaga Bulldogs can walk into someone else’s house and leave with a W, it’s a good day.

Without question, this year’s Gonzaga Bulldogs have had some struggles on the road. For much of the season it’s seemed that when the opposing crowd is the most locked-in, the Zags are the most locked up. With this in mind, there was plenty of speculation about how they would fare in a sold-out Beasley Coliseum last night, especially one packed with rowdy Coug fans looking for retribution after their loss to the Zags in January.

Unfortunately for Coug fans, despite a heroic second-half surge from WSU, the Zags would leave Pullman with an 84-63 victory—another huge step forward in Gonzaga’s journey back onto the college basketball world’s radar.

As has been the case in recent games, the Zags started slow and struggled from outside. But by halftime, they had built a commanding 50-28 lead, thanks to stellar performances from Nolan Hickman, Graham Ike, and big minutes off the bench from Braden Huff, Dusty Stromer, and Michael Ajayi.

The Zags took their foot off the gas a bit in the second half, but WSU never really looked like they were going to make a serious run—even with an aggressive offensive push from Lejuan Watts (who finished with 19 points and 5 assists) and an annoyingly efficient Thomas Thrastarson (who finished with 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting off the bench).

It was another strong win for the Bulldogs, and with the Palouse now squarely in the rearview, it’s time to head back to the Kennel and get locked in for the WCC’s marquee matchup: Saint Mary’s. In the Kennel. On Senior Night.

Nolan Makes It Look Easy

Nolan was once again superb against the Cougs. After his 19-point performance against WSU back in January, Nolan came out aggressive once again, connecting with confidence from beyond the arc, getting smoothly to the rim off the dribble, and taking the opportunity to show off his playmaking skills at the point guard spot while Ryan Nembhard took a seat in the first half.

Hickman finished with a team-high 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three. He also led the team with 5 assists, including some absolute dimes to the low-post for easy layups. Hickman is an excellent off-ball guard, but he’s also a sneaky good point guard when given the chance. It’s an unfathomable luxury to have someone as skilled as Nolan running the show when the nation’s most skilled passing point guard takes a breather.

Spreading the Love

After earning WCC Player of the Week honors earlier this week for his 11-assist performance against Pepperdine, Ryan Nembhard finished with a season-low 2 assists against the Cougs. The last time he recorded 2 or fewer assists was on February 4 of last year in a 2-point loss to Saint Mary’s, where, despite his modest playmaking contributions, he still managed to score a team-high 18 points. Unfortunately, that was not the case last night, as Ryan finished with 7 points on 3-of-7 shooting. He still played 35 minutes for the Zags and ran the show expertly while he was on the floor, but it was an undeniably low-output night from a stats perspective.

And while an “off night” like this might have hurt the Zags earlier in the season, they’ve been spreading the ball around much more generously (and much more effectively) lately—especially during those rare stretches when Nembhard finds himself hounded by strong on-ball defenders in the half-court. The nation’s leader in assists had a quiet night against the Cougs, but it’s ultimately extremely encouraging that the Zags still finished with 19 assists on 29 made field goals in despite Nembhard’s modest contribution in the assist column. In fact, every one of the 9 Zags who played last night registered at least 1 assist: Nolan Hickman with 5, Graham Ike with 3, and Ben Gregg, Khalif Battle, and Michael Ajayi each with 2. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Innocenti, Braden Huff, and Dusty Stromer each contributed 1 apiece.

The Zags are playing their most unselfish, high-efficiency basketball of the season lately, and their #11 NET ranking and #10 KenPom rankings reflect that.

Huff’s Insane Efficiency

Speaking of efficient… over the last 5 games, Braden Huff has played just 77 total minutes—averaging 12.8 minutes per game—and in that stretch, he’s scored 64 points on 28-of-42 shooting, an insane 67% from the field.

Believe it or not, Huff currently ranks first in the nation for 2-point field goal attempts per minute played, just ahead of his frontcourt counterpart, Graham Ike (yes, Gonzaga’s big men own the #1 and #2 spots on that list). The sports media world has yet to fully recognize just how impressive Huff’s scoring has been of late, but once they do, rest assured you can expect to hear about it in every remaining broadcast. Though his 11 points in 11 minutes against the Cougs was solid—just below his season average—there’s every reason to believe that if he were playing 25-30 minutes per game, he’d be the nation’s highest-scoring big man.

The Zags do lose a bit of their physicality—and a lot of their rebounding—when Huff takes the floor in place of Ike, but Huff’s insane efficiency as a scorer means that opponents never really get a break in the low post against the Zags. It’s like facing 25 minutes of super-physical bully-ball against Ike, one of the nation’s highest-usage bigs, followed by 15 minutes of getting absolutely torched in the paint by Huff, one of the nation’s most efficient scorers. It must be demoralizing to play center against the Zags right now.

The Battle Conundrum

The bad news: it was another “off” night for Khalif Battle. He finished with just 2 points on 1-of-6 shooting (and 0-of-3 from three). The good news: Battle always finds a way to bounce back, so here’s hoping that last night’s quiet performance just means he’s set to explode against Saint Mary’s on Saturday. The Zags will badly need his playmaking, outside shooting, and foul pressure to beat the Gaels.

The other piece of good news is that the Zags have Dusty Stromer, who after a period of offensive inaction seems to have rediscovered his shooting touch, hitting back-to-back 3s in the first half to help pull the Zags out of a stubborn scoring slump. Michael Ajayi also continued his recent resurgence, scoring 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting against the Cougs. Over the last 4 games, Ajayi is averaging 11 points and 8 rebounds per game while also playing some smothering defense in the full-court press.

The combination of Ajayi and Innocenti has proven especially potent in denying entry passes from the perimeter and preventing clean looks at the rim from just about everywhere on the floor. In fact, Gonzaga’s defense was once again exceptional last night, holding the Cougs to just 40.7% from the field and forcing 15 turnovers along the way.

The Zags have an extremely tough road ahead, with matchups against the Gaels, Santa Clara, and USF paving the way toward Las Vegas and the WCC Tournament. To finish out conference play with consecutive much-needed Quad 1 wins, they’ll need everyone on the roster, not just the usual suspects, to show up and show out in all three games.