Gonzaga rinses Washington loss, leads wire-to-wire in 78-40 rout of Mississippi Valley State
At times Gonzaga made its first finals exam look harder than it needed to be, but the Bulldogs still managed to pick up a resounding win 48 hours after a deflating road loss against Washington, cruising past Mississippi Valley State for a 78-40 win at McCarthey Athletic Center.
The Bulldogs didn’t set any records or pick up any style points against a Mississippi Valley State team that came in at No. 362 (of 362 teams) in the NET rankings, but considering what Gonzaga went through Saturday at UW and what it has coming up with a neutral-site game against defending national champion UConn at the end of the week, Mark Few was satisfied with how things played out.
“I thought it was good,” GU coach Mark Few said. “Those are not fun days, the day after you lose one that you felt you kind of let slip away a little bit. I thought they came out, especially on the defensive end, it was a really good defensive effort.”
The Zags’ defense stymied a Mississippi Valley State team that came in averaging a Division I-low 49.7 points per game, holding the visitors to 16 of 55 (29%) from the field and forcing 18 turnovers. But GU’s offense ran into many of the same issues that popped up during a six-minute scoreless stretch late in Saturday’s loss to the Huskies.
After missing all nine of their 3-point attempts in the second half at Alaska Airlines Arena, the Bulldogs watched their poor perimeter shooting carry into Monday’s contest. Gonzaga made just 2 of 12 in the first half against MVSU and finished 5 of 23 from behind the arc, making the Bulldogs 10 of 41 (23%) over their last two games.
Some of Gonzaga’s offensive issues were self-inflicted, but the Bulldogs also struggled at times to operate against MVSU’s unique 2-3 zone defense – a scheme most college basketball teams have abandoned in favor of a more traditional man-to-man look.
“It’s pretty rare, unless you play Syracuse or something to play 40 minutes against zone,” Few said. “It just has a different rhythm to it, a different feel, shots are coming in different areas. I think we eventually figured that out, kind of solved it and got the ball to the right spots.”
Gonzaga’s point totals from one half to the next didn’t vary too much (38 and 40), but the Bulldogs saw an uptick in efficiency, making 43% of their looks in the first half and 51% in the second half.
Braden Huff was GU’s scoring leader for the third time this season, finishing with 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting. The redshirt freshman forward could have hit the 20-point mark, but he left some meat on the bone at the free throw line, making just 3 of 8 from the stripe.
Graham Ike inched toward double-double territory, finishing with 13 points (5 of 6) and eight rebounds, and Ben Gregg came off the bench to score 11 points and grab four rebounds.
The Delta Devils’ only double-digit scorer was senior guard Rayquan Brown, who had a game-high 19 points on 7 of 16 shooting to go with nine rebounds.
Gonzaga’s largest statistical advantages came in the paint, where the Bulldogs outscored the Delta Devils 36-20, and in the assists column. They had 21 assists compared to MVSU’s 8.
The Bulldogs never trailed, led by as many as 41 points and forced the Delta Devils into two four-minute scoreless stretches in the first half before holding MVSU without a point for nearly six minutes early in the second half.
“I think after (Saturday), nobody was too happy about that, especially at the end of the game how things went,” Huff said. “To kind of get that bad taste out of our mouth and be able to play 48 hours later, it was kind of nice for us to kind of get this one done and now we look ahead to UConn, which will be a bigger one too.”