Knight rescues Bulldogs

SAN DIEGO – Having been there helps.

Nobody appreciates that fact more than Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who watched his sixth-ranked Bulldogs survive another close and fiercely contested men’s basketball game Saturday afternoon.

The Zags won in the unlikeliest of ways, getting a late – and rare – 3-pointer from Erroll Knight to hold off West Coast Conference rival San Diego 64-63 in front of a sellout crowd of 5,132 in Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Knight’s 3-pointer, his first of the season, came from the right corner with 8 seconds left and lifted the Bulldogs (15-3 overall, 5-0 in the WCC) to their sixth consecutive win.

San Diego (11-6, 1-3) had one last chance to win the game when Ross DeRogatis launched a leaning, 12-footer just before the buzzer, but his highly contested shot fell well short.

“We’ve had a lot of them this year, where we go down to the last possession,” Few said, “so we’re well-trained in them. But I didn’t expect anything but that from San Diego.

“Coming down there, I really thought they were probably the team we need to beat to win this league, and I still feel that way after watching this game.”

The hard-luck Toreros, whose three conference losses have come by a combined total of four points, frustrated the Zags with a variety of junk defenses and turned that game into a ratty affair that was much to their liking.

Defensive whiz Corey Belser limited GU’s Adam Morrsion, the nation’s top Division I scorer, to 16 points, more than 12 less than his average. In addition, USD held J.P. Batista, the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer, without a point in the first half, and hung a 0-for-9 collar on junior Derek Raivio, who failed to score for the first time since the final game of his freshman year.

“We played really good team defense … really excellent team defense,” Toreros coach Brad Holland said.

But in the end, GU found a capable and deserving hero in Knight, a 6-foot-7 senior forward who has been plagued all season by knee problems.

“It felt great,” Knight said of his game-winning shot, which was set up when teammate Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes dug out an offensive rebound following a Raivio miss with 14 seconds remaining. “Tonight, the team didn’t want to be denied, and I didn’t want to be denied.

“As soon as it left my hand, I knew it was in. I’m happy for the program, and I’m happy for myself.”

Holland and Few both agreed that the rebound by Altidor-Cespedes, who finished with a career-high 12 points, four assists, two steals and a block, was as big a play as Knight’s shot.

“Our kids played a great game,” Holland said. “But to close a team like that out, you’ve got to finish every play, and we didn’t finish that rebound.”

With the ball back in their possession, the Bulldogs tried to dump it in to Batista and run Morrison off a double screen. Knight said his first responsibility was to set a ball screen for Raivio to simplify his upcoming post entry pass.

“But I never got around to it,” Knight explained. “Derek had already picked up his dribble, so we swung (the ball) and swung it again, and I was open in the corner. And when the shot went in, that was it – game.”

USD’s Nick Lewis finished as the game’s leading scorer with 18 points on 4-for-4 shooting from 3-point range. Batista, despite picking up two quick fouls and playing only 7 minutes in the first half, scored 14 straight points for GU during a 3-minute stretch of the second, and matched Morrison’s 16 points.

The 6-9 senior center also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to post the 10th double-double of his career.

“It was really frustrating,” Batista said of his unproductive opening period, “because my team needed me.

“I was upset, but that’s what I’ve got to do – try to stay patient and think that my time was going to come in the second half.

“That’s what great teams do. We struggled the whole game, but we were able to pull it out at the end.”

The Zags play at San Francisco in an 8 p.m. game Monday.