Gonzaga rewind: LMU gets physical with Zags at the rim, on the boards

So many streaks kaput, including one that stretched over three decades. So many items on the to-do list, led by rebounding and defense.

There were no attempts to sugarcoat it, no excuses available or offered as No. 6 Gonzaga processed a 68-67 loss to Loyola Marymount on Thursday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

The Lions hadn’t won in Spokane since a 91-79 victory on Feb. 7, 1991, the season before Mark Few was promoted from grad assistant to a full-time assistant coach at Gonzaga.

The Zags, who had won 75 in a row at the Kennel, dropped to No. 11 in the NET rankings, No. 14 in KenPom and to the No. 3 seed line in most bracket projections.

Our latest rewind delves into the reasons behind LMU’s upset win.

Warning signs

The Zags have been in nailbiters in nearly one-third of their games. They’ve usually found ways to win, posting a 6-1 record in games decided by seven points or less. Prior to LMU, the lone loss was against Baylor, which scored the game’s last eight points in the final 1:40, answering GU’s 8-0 run that gave the Zags a 63-56 lead.

Gonzaga was clutch in the closing minutes to edge San Francisco, Santa Clara and BYU by a combined eight points in three West Coast Conference road wins. GU nearly did it again against the Lions with an 8-0 spurt before yielding Cam Shelton’s winning bucket.

“These teams are good,” GU sophomore point guard Nolan Hickman said. “It’s not like we want to come in and just be in a close game with all these guys every single game. (The Lions) have a real good system, they’ve been playing real hard versus all of us.

“We’re going to have to grit out a lot of those games. It’s not going to be peaches and cream this season.”

Physical play favored Lions

LMU won the rebounding 38-29, including 12-7 on the offensive glass. The Lions battled to a 36-36 draw in paint points against a GU team has averages plus-11.6 points in that category.

Bigs Keli Leaupepe, Michael Graham and Rick Issanza – with plenty of help from Shelton’s nine rebounds – established an edge on the boards.

“They had all their bigs going,” Gonzaga senior forward Anton Watson said. “They were kind of substituting them all out and a new fresh batch came in. They were crashing the boards hard every single time. Collectively, we have to do better and we have to find a man. They were coming up with the balls at the end. That’s really what won them the game.”

Graham collected five offensive rebounds, three in a 70-second span inside the 5-minute mark.

“I feel like our physicality could have been way better in the first half,” Hickman said. “We find ourselves getting punched in the mouth quick and fast with these teams. If we come out juiced, energized and ready to fight physical, we should be in a better position than we were (vs. LMU).”

How does that get solved?

“It’s just a combination of those two things (energy and juice), Hickman said. “Just figuring out what it takes for us to get up and moving and get us ready for a bruiser like one of those (games).”

Paint patrol

LMU blocked seven shots, including Graham swatting Drew Timme’s attempt in the closing seconds. When the Lions were breaking away from a tie at 43, they blocked shots by Julian Strawther, Watson and Hickman to build a 53-44 advantage.

Meanwhile, the left-handed shooting Shelton had success with dribble penetration, including his winning bank shot from 5 feet with his right hand. The Zags at times have had problems keeping opposing guards out of the lane and they lack the rim protection that was often provided by Chet Holmgren last season.

Gonzaga (16-4, 5-1 WCC) has blocked 63 shots through 20 games. After 20 games last season, Holmgren had 68 blocks and the team had 116.

“We knew they were going to be physical, they’re always physical,” Watson said. “We had a tough time scoring.”

Timme rebounded from a shaky first half with 15 of his 17 points in the final 20 minutes. Hickman and Bolton combined for 22 points, five in the second half. Strawther, who averages 13.8 points, had an off night with just one field goal and six points.

GU was held 25 points below its WCC-leading 91.8 points per game.

“They played us really physical and had some athletes that protected the rim,” Few said. “They guarded Drew physically. We missed a lot of free throws and missed a lot of front ends of 1-and-1s. That kind of led to the night we had on offense.”

Timme was 7 of 12 and Strawther 3 of 6 as Gonzaga finished 15 of 23 (65.2%) at the line.