Gonzaga rewind: ‘Prevent’ defense, free throw misfires lead to stressful finish vs. USF

Well, can’t say Mark Few didn’t warn you.

Gonzaga’s head coach has mentioned numerous times that fans should anticipate close games, especially on the road, because the Zags don’t have the talent level to simply show up and win big.

He didn’t say it specifically, but that figures to apply to home games against the better teams in the West Coast Conference. The first of those on the conference schedule arrived Thursday and resulted in a hard-fought 77-72 win over San Francisco that the Zags made more stressful than necessary with faulty free-throw shooting.

“It’s just frustrating,” Few said of Gonzaga’s 12-of-19 effort at the line in the final 2 minutes, 23 seconds. “You’re rooting for your guys. I can tell you they’ve done their work. I tell them, ‘If you put your work in, you just live with the results.’ To me, it was more about getting stops. They hit some big-time shots, those 3s were deep and quick.

“We need to guard better and smarter at the end of those games and you need to make your free throws. If you don’t make your free throws, you can put yourself in harm’s way, which we almost did.”

More on Gonzaga’s ‘prevent’ defense, Anton Watson’s widespread contributions and Ben Gregg’s impact on the starting unit in our latest GU rewind.

Defense rests

Gonzaga’s defense slipped in crunch time after performing quite well during the first 37-plus minutes. At that point, USF, one of the most efficient offenses in the WCC, was sitting at 52 points and mired in an eight-minute field-goal drought.

The Dons made seven field goals, the last six by Marcus Williams, and scored 20 points in the final 2:34.

“It’s almost like in football you’re in prevent defense a little bit, you don’t want to give up 3s and yet you don’t want to foul,” Few said. “We obviously can do a better job than we did.

“I thought it was really good, especially in that second half and for really long stretches of the first half. Both teams were really playing their tails off on the defensive end.”

Gonzaga limited forward Jonathan Mogbo to eight points, roughly half of his average. Williams, USF’s second-leading scorer at 13.9 ppg, had three points before scoring a whopping 16 in the final 2:13.

San Francisco committed 15 turnovers, triggering GU’s transition game in the second half.

“Holding them to 39.1% from the field is wonderful for our defense,” said Graham Ike, one of the primary defenders on Mogbo.

Winning plays from Watson, Gregg

Watson battled through foul and foul-shooting issues. Gregg fought through fatigue. Both were called for questionable fouls that didn’t sit well with Few or the crowd.

Both made several important plays in GU’s victory.

Watson did most of his damage as Gonzaga was rallying from a 48-46 deficit to take a 65-52 lead. He didn’t commit a turnover in 33 minutes. He had seven boards, 15 points, three steals, three assists and a memorable chase-down block on Malik Thomas at the rim. He missed 6 of 9 free throws but made 6 of 8 field-goal attempts.

“He’s obviously the most valuable guy we have out there,” Few said. “You can switch him onto anybody on the floor, he can guard anybody. He’s become a better scorer and more diversified player offensively. He gets the offense going, he takes the ball out on presses, he does everything for us.

“He’s been a lot those jobs throughout his career. He’s just scoring the ball better and being more assertive, which is exactly what we need from him.”

Gregg, who moved into the starting lineup three games ago, showed no lingering effects after suffering back spasms during Saturday’s rout over San Diego. The 6-foot-10 forward had seven of his 12 points and four of his five rebounds in the second half.

His biggest bucket was a wing 3-pointer that bumped Gonzaga’s lead to 59-52 with 4:45 remaining. He made 4 of 4 free throws in the final minute.

“I told the guys afterward those were big free throws, he hit that big 3,” Few said. “He did a great job. He played heavy minutes and played through his heavy minutes. He’s been kind of struggling with his conditioning and getting gassed after 3 or 4 minutes all year, so that’s limited his time on the floor. I thought he played through it better tonight.”

Gregg’s averages in three games as a starter: 29.3 minutes, 10.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists.