Gonzaga falls at home to Santa Clara, 103-99

Despite a heroic late-game push and an absurd stat-line from its backcourt, Gonzaga had no answer for Santa Clara’s relentless long-range assault or the sluggishness of its own defense.

Gonzaga’s 103-99 loss to Santa Clara last night had everything: some of the best basketball we’ve seen from this team all season, and also some of the worst, often in back-to-back possessions. There were big shots, bad whistles, crucial stops, and neck-snapping changes in momentum. It was, in a word, chaos—like nothing I can remember seeing in college basketball. In the words of a visibly exasperated postgame Nolan Hickman, it was unheard of.

For the second time this season, the Zags have dropped back-to-back games. This time, however, it happened in conference play, and to two unranked teams. It’s been 11 years since the Zags lost two consecutive conference games, and Santa Clara’s 103-point outburst was the most any team has ever scored on any Gonzaga team in the Kennel. Plenty of records and season highs worth celebrating were set against the Broncos, other records were not the kind the Zags were hoping for.

Credit where it’s due: Santa Clara shot lights out against the Zags, especially in the second half. Going 12-of-17 from 3 in a single half is borderline absurd. But it’s not like the Zags did much to contest those 3s, either, As good as the Gonzaga backcourt was offensively, and as dominant as Ike and Huff were in the low post, Gonzaga just couldn’t play defense last night, and even though the offense was on-point, Santa Clara came in red hot and left with a W.

After a thrilling and grueling final 5 minutes, the Zags walked off the floor with an L, some tough game film to sit through, and, thankfully, a full week to recover and reassess.

First Half

There’s not much to say about the first half compared to the second. Ryan Nembhard handed out 7 assists, and Nolan Hickman nailed a few huge shots from outside. The big story of the first half, however, was the sheer fact that the Zags simply could not stop Santa Clara’s Tyree Bryan, who dropped 18 points before halftime (a new season high for him). After yet another bad defensive half, Gonzaga went into the locker room down 46-45.

Second Half

Trying to make sense of what happened next is difficult. Too many things—good and bad—happened and in such rapid succession that it hard to get a clear picture of exactly what went wrong and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Broncos get hot – For one, Santa Clara couldn’t miss from the perimeter. As noted, a 12-of-17 performance from 3 is just unreal. While the Zags did their best to keep pace, Santa Clara’s insane shooting and Gonzaga’s unwillingness to adjust put the Zags in a hole too deep to climb out of. 8 different Broncos connected from outside last night.

Ike finds the bench

It was hard to tell during the broadcast what exactly caused Ike to lose his cool, but some questionable calls on the big man’s low-post defense certainly played a role. Some of the frustration following his unfortunately futile 26-point performance against OSU—a game he fouled out of—seemed to carry over into last night’s contest, and it looked like Graham was growing increasingly aggravated that the fouls he was racking up had once again begun limiting his playing time. Ike’s been a scoring machine recently, but it seems like his biggest challenge of late is dealing with referees. Whether it was because Ike said something that crossed a line or because the refs were simply trigger happy and had a bone to pick, Ike was hit with a flagrant 1 foul call and then a very costly late-game technical foul just minutes later. If we know one thing about Mark Few, it’s that playing out of control is the shortest route towards the bench, and after crossing that line, Ike was done for the night.

Gonzaga’s Defense

Gonzaga’s defense, to be fair, was better than we’ve seen all season—but only for roughly 4 minutes, and by then it was too little, too late. For the other 36 minutes, the Zags looked even worse than they did against OSU. They blew assignments, flubbed on perimeter switches, miscommunicated, over- and under-rotated on ball-screens, let Santa Clara’s guards get into the key, continually left the baseline wide open, and lost track of their assignments when rebounding.

Recent game film have made a few things clear to opponents: if you want to attack Gonzaga’s guards off the dribble and get into the paint, you can, they’ll just kind of let you. If you want a clean look from the perimeter, just make the extra pass and it’ll be open, 100% of the time. If you need quick buckets inside, you can easily shoot over Gonzaga’s bigs with a simple little hook shot. Finally, if you’re a rangy, athletic wing in search of a new career high, the Bulldogs are the team to help you find it. We know this team is capable of playing great defense. What remains to be seen, though, is whether or not they’re capable of doing it enough (and in time) to matter.

The (Almost) Comeback

When the Zags found themselves down by 13 with less than 5 minutes to go, things looked beyond grim. But then all at once they seemed to remember they were still in a basketball game, at home—and they weren’t going down without a fight. They switched to a defensive-minded lineup full of hustle guys (though, suspiciously, without Emmanuel Innocenti?), launched into an aggressive full-court press, and due to the hustle and guts of Ben Gregg were able to force a couple huge turnovers, get some stops, and grab some key rebounds. While the defense turned up the heat, the offense also began to really hum. The Zags mounted a thrilling 12-2 run, pulling them within 3 of the Broncos. And for a few minutes, it felt like the Zags might pull off the impossible.

The End

But it wasn’t meant to be. Despite their surge, Gonzaga couldn’t close the deal down the stretch. Once again, their undisciplined, sloppy defense in the game’s first 35 minutes proved more than even their best offense could countenance.

The Box Score:

The Good:

• Ryan Nembhard: 16 points, 15 assists (career-high), 3 steals
• Nolan Hickman: 24 points (career-high), 6 made 3s (career-high)
• Ben Gregg: 13 points, 5-5 from the field, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 0 turnovers (Mr. Zag played out of his mind in crunch time. Although Ryan and Nolan handled the bulk of the late-game scoring, it was Gregg that set things moving in the right direction with his hustle, grit, and sheer competitiveness)
• Graham Ike: 24 points in 25 minutes
• Braden Huff: 16 points in 10 minutes

The Bad:

• Khalif Battle: 0 points, 3 turnovers (it was the first game in his long career without scoring a single point in 10+ minutes of play)
• Dusty Stromer: 3 points on 1-6 shooting
• Graham Ike: 4 fouls (including a Flagrant 1 and a costly late-game technical)

The Broncos:

• Tyree Bryan: 35 points (career-high… by a lot), 7 made 3s, 7 rebounds
• Adama-Alpha Bal: 20 points (all in the second half)
• Santa Clara: 18-38 from 3
• Outrebounded Gonzaga 38 to 30 (including 10 offensive rebounds)

Final Thoughts

The Zags may very well drop out of the AP Top 25 after this loss, but with 17 other ranked teams also losing this week (yes, you read that right), the damage incurred could be minimized. And while this loss stings, we’ve seen this movie before. No one needs reminding that despite falling out of the Top 25 around this time last year, the Zags still managed to finish the season as a Sweet 16 team.

Despite all the bleak assessments offered across social media in the last few days, all is far from lost for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. In fact, there’s ample reason for optimism. On any other night, the team that scores 99 points, makes 10 3s, has 5 players in double figures, and gets a combined 40 points and 17 assists from its backcourt is the winning team. Yes, Gonzaga’s defense was poor this week (very poor), but it also took an absurd shooting night from Santa Clara and an Oregon State team similarly playing out of their minds to bring them down.

Consistency remains the primary issue for this team. All the pieces are there, and they are more than capable of getting things back on track in time for the tournament.