The streak of scoring over 85 points ended for Gonzaga. The winning streak, however, continues, and this is more important than anything else. In a real battle, the Bulldogs improved to 14-0 with a 73-59 victory over Saint Mary, who is now 0-3 in the WCC for the first time in 15 years.
Saint Mary’s decided to change their starting lineup for this game, putting striker Kyle Bowen of 6’8 in place of the guard Jabe Mullins in the hope of adding more length and physicality to slow Gonzaga. For a while, it seemed to work. Gaels played their best 10-minute stretch of the season to open the game, giving Gonzaga his first double-digit deficit of the season. Gonzaga was freezing and the Gaels were controlling the pace, hitting four of the first five three points.
Saint Mary’s would get cold quickly. They went from 0 to 8 from the bottom in the last 10 minutes of the break and Gonzaga turned the 10 point difference into a seven point lead in the break. Aaron Cook was the star of the first half for the Bulldogs. He hit 3-3 on the field with a few rebounds, a steal and an assist, and managed to slow Tommy Kuhse, who made six quick assists to open the game. Drew Timme led the team with nine points in the first half.
The second part was very difficult. Saint Mary’s just doesn’t play pretty games with this current list. On Gonzaga’s part, they were not very aggressive on the offensive and sometimes tried to force the problem. Fortunately, the Gaelic offensive offered little resistance and the Zags were able to keep them at a distance before moving away in the final eight minutes.
Four Zags ended in double digits: Corey Kispert with 17, Joel Ayayi with 16 and Drew Timme and Jalen Suggs with 14 each. The game looked ugly, but somehow Gonzaga still managed to throw 55 percent off the field, while keeping Saint Mary’s at just 35.5 percent. The most shocking statistic is just six Bulldog assists, tied for their lowest number in a game in the past seven seasons.
Gonzaga will return to Spokane and wait an entire week to receive the Pacific next Saturday night. Could they add a game outside the conference midweek? Everything is possible in this crazy season. But it can be beneficial to get some rest and work on some things, because the last two games were certainly not the sharpest they have ever been, despite the very comfortable victory margins.
Few coach with the perfect quote for this game:
Gonzaga’s head coach, Mark Few, in the game basically sums it up: “We overcame this and we are moving on”.
– Karthik Venkataraman (@KREMKarthik) January 17, 2021