Rough second half stretch send No. 13 Gonzaga to 84-74 loss to San Diego State
It happened again.
Another rough second half – a bad stretch at the end of the first half didn’t help Gonzaga’s cause either – against another capable opponent resulting in another loss. It looked a little like GU’s setbacks to Purdue and Washington, but this time it happened on Gonzaga’s home court.
The 13th-ranked Zags squandered an eight-point lead in the closing minutes of the first half against San Diego State and then fell behind by 15 after a rugged 4-minute stretch early in the closing half.
Gonzaga rallied to pull within three, but the Aztecs regained their composure and pulled away for an 84-74 nonconference victory in front of a packed house of 6,000 Friday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
The Zags (9-4) missed an opportunity to earn their best win of the season against the Aztecs, who were No. 29 in the NET rankings entering the game. Gonzaga suffered its first home loss of the season and dropped to 0-4 in Quad 1 games. San Diego State (11-2) notched its first Quad 1 win of the season.
“I thought we played with great courage and showed a lot of heart to fight ourselves back into it and there was plenty of time left,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “Obviously, we expended a lot of energy (in the comeback), but then we just had a couple mental errors on some of our coverages on defense. That was the biggest thing.”
San Diego State took advantage of several Gonzaga turnovers during an 18-3 run to take a 62-47 lead. Eleven of the Aztecs’ first 24 points of the second half came via points off GU turnovers.
“Their intensity on defense and we kind of made some bad plays, just turned the ball over and not taking care of it,” forward Anton Watson said of the Zags’ rough patch.
Gonzaga turned the tables with its full-court pressure, which rattled the Aztecs and the Zags capitalized with a string of baskets.
“They stung (GU’s press) pretty good in the first half, but Anton at the top makes a big difference,” Few said. “He really changed it for us, got us going, got the crowd back into it and we were able to get a couple of steals and easy baskets and claw back into it.”
Ryan Nembhard’s jumper trimmed SDSU’s lead to 68-65, but Reese Waters and Miles Byrd hit huge 3s and Jaedon LeDee’s layup gave the Aztecs a nine-point advantage. GU never was closer than seven points inside the final 5 minutes.
“Those (3s) were huge,” Few said. “That stretch at the end of the first half and start of the second half was tough. I thought we fought and hung in there and battled. We just didn’t play smart enough during this whole game.”
Waters, who averages 13.7 points, scored 22 and LeDee added 20 – nine coming at the free-throw line – and seven boards.
Graham Ike paced the Zags with 20 points and 10 boards in 31 minutes. Nembhard finished with 15 points, nine assists and five rebounds. Watson added 16 points, four boards, three assists and three steals.
“We have to keep that fight, and then we just have to clean up on some of these missed assignments,” Few said. “We have to get our defense back. They torched us in the second half and our defense has been pretty good this whole preseason.”
San Diego State connected on 55% of its second-half shots.
The Zags led for the majority of the first half and stretched the advantage to 35-27 after a pair of Dusty Stromer free throws. Gonzaga missed seven of its last eight field-goal attempts and San Diego State closed the half with an 11-2 spurt to take a 38-37 lead.
It marked the first time the Zags trailed at home at halftime since Feb. 20, 2020, when San Francisco led 31-22 – a span of 53 games. GU rallied to win 71-54.
Darrion Trammell, a thorn in Gonzaga’s side after entering with just over 16 minutes remaining, connected on his third 3-pointer, and LeDee passed out of a double team to Elijah Saunders for a layup to give the Aztecs a one-point edge at halftime.
Trammell, who came in averaging 7.6 points with a season high of 11, had 15 points in 16 first-half minutes. He scored 17 points and Byrd added nine.