Late offensive issues resurface for No. 8 Gonzaga in 77-71 loss to No. 18 UConn at Madison Square Garden
NEW YORK – After beating Gonzaga 77-71 on Saturday night, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley told a room of reporters he wouldn’t mind negotiating a new nonconference series with Mark Few’s program, or extending the one that just concluded in front of 18,900 passionate fans at historic Madison Square Garden.
“Hopefully, we can extend the series with them,” Hurley said.
The Zags may not want any more of the Huskies after losing to Hurley’s program for the third time in three years – this time in a fashion and manner that likely stung more than the past two.
Relative to its previous meetings with UConn, Gonzaga was much better in most areas on Saturday night, but that didn’t mean the Zags were good enough to come out with a resume-building victory inside an NBA venue that’s become somewhat of a second home for Hurley’s Huskies.
With the loss, the Zags have dropped consecutive games for the first time since 2018-19, when they lost 76-73 to Tennessee at a neutral site in Phoenix and 103-90 at North Carolina four days later.
The main culprit Saturday? Late-game offensive issues that hurt Gonzaga last week in an overtime loss to Kentucky resurfaced three time zones away against UConn, a team that’s rediscovered its form since losing three straight at the Maui Invitational.
Gonzaga failed to make a shot from the field inside the final 3 minutes, 25 seconds, and the only point during that stretch came from guard Khalif Battle, who made 1 of 2 free throws to trim UConn’s lead to 75-71.
Battle, who’d led the country with 35 consecutive makes from the free-throw line – and hadn’t missed this season – watched his second attempt deflect off the back iron, allowing UConn to close out the game with a pair of Liam McNeeley free throws at the other end.
Gonzaga, which scored 29 points in the second half against Kentucky, was limited to 31 against UConn. The Bulldogs finished the game 1 of 7 from the field. They were 11 of 31 from the field after halftime and 2 of 8 from the 3-point line.
Asked if GU’s offensive issues were reminiscent of the ones his team experienced a week ago, Few responded, “No, not really.”
A common thread between the two games was Gonzaga getting most of the looks it wanted, then proceeding to watch many of its best ones roll around the rim before falling into the hands of a UConn player.
“We got some great looks and just didn’t convert,” Few said. “Actually, it was a heckuva basketball game. It was highly competitive, it was hard fought and it was probably the most physical game we’ve played this year. I was proud of the way we battled there. We battled another excellent rebounding team. We have aspirations of being an excellent rebounding team and we battled them on the glass.
“Yeah, we missed some shots we’ll make. The ones at the rim, I think we’ll make a very, very high percentage of those.”
Gonzaga’s offense hit a wall on a night when its top scorer ran into one of his own. Graham Ike, who came in averaging 15.6 points per game, was limited to three points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field in 12 minutes, matching his lowest total since transferring from Wyoming last season. The senior forward also committed four turnovers and encountered foul trouble, picking up his fourth with 6 minutes remaining.
Ike wasn’t the only GU starter to struggle. Nolan Hickman finished scoreless on two shot attempts in 12 minutes, seven days after the senior shooting guard went 1 of 7 from the 3-point line against Kentucky.
Battle shouldered much of the offensive load for Gonzaga with Ike and Hickman struggling. The sixth-year senior had 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 4 of 6 from the 3-point line. Nembhard scored 16 points to go with seven assists and four rebounds. Michael Ajayi was the third GU player in double figures, scoring 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field to go with six rebounds.
“Like coach said, I thought we missed a lot of easy ones at the rim to open that second half,” GU point guard Ryan Nembhard said. “We had a lot of chances to make shots that we normally make, and we didn’t quite convert on some of those. Then we just knew it was going to be a physical game. They’re super physical … they’re a good team.”
Similar to Gonzaga, UConn’s season scoring leader, Alex Karaban, couldn’t find an offensive rhythm much of the game, scoring eight points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and 0 of 7 from the 3-point line. Freshman Liam McNeeley picked up the slack, though, scoring a career-high 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 10 of 12 from the free-throw line. The Huskies won despite a first-half injury to center Samson Johnson, who entered concussion protocol after falling to the ground on the defensive end.
Gonzaga (7-3) may drop out of the top 10 of the AP rankings by the time it returns home for games Wednesday against Nicholls State and Saturday against Bucknell at McCarthey Athletic Center. The Zags close out their nonconference slate on Dec. 28 against UCLA in the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.