‘I’m happy for him.’ Gonzaga withstands 25-point outing from Indiana’s Oumar Ballo in matchup against old school

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – For two years, Gonzaga’s coaching staff and development team worked with Oumar Ballo on his conditioning, helped him fine-tune his hook-shot and spent countless hours behind the scenes with the Mali native as he adapted to the American game.

Much to Gonzaga’s delight, and dismay at certain points of Thursday’s game at the Battle 4 Atlantis, Ballo’s made significant strides since arriving on Gonzaga’s campus in the fall of 2019.

The sixth-year center, who’s spending his final season of eligibility at Indiana was not only the focal point of the Hoosiers’ offense, but the only player coach Mike Woodson could depend on for long stretches of an 89-73 Gonzaga victory at the Imperial Arena.

Ballo scored a game-high 25 points – the highest total of his career since a 30-point outing against Creighton and Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard during the 2022 Maui Invitational – but his Indiana teammates didn’t offer much in the way of help while the Bulldogs build an 18-point lead in the first half.

“It was good, Gonzaga’s a good program,” Ballo said. “There’s a reason why they’ve been good for so long. So is Indiana, and I’m glad that we got to play. I wish we had a different result, but it’s a long season and we’re going to learn from that and get better for the next opportunity that we’re going to have.”

With both of his former schools participating this week, odds were high the Indiana center would run into either Gonzaga or Arizona at some point over a three-day stretch in the Bahamas.

It seemed probable the only ranked teams on Gonzaga’s side of the bracket at Atlantis would face off in a semifinal game on Thanksgiving Day, but upset losses for both instead dropped the Bulldogs and Hoosiers into a consolation game.

Mark Few’s coaching staff spent Wednesday night studying up on Indiana, which meant lots of cut-ups Ballo, who’s spent the last four years polishing his game and transforming into an All-Pac-12 player at Arizona.

“It was hard. Clearly he’s gotten a lot better,” Few said. “I think we had him, it was like six years ago. He’s older and he’s got himself in great shape. I’m happy for him. But yeah, that right-handed hook was falling tonight. But we were OK with that. We just didn’t want to give him a whole lot of things between us and the basket and for the most part, we adjusted our ball-screen coverage about halfway through the first half.

“For the most part, after that adjustment we didn’t give him a whole lot of stuff between us and the basket.”

Ballo was still a handful, particularly in the first half when he scored 19 of his 25 points and made eight consecutive shots to open the game. Ballo outscored Gonzaga 7-5 by himself during a two-minute stretch midway through the first half, relying on a variety of hooks, layups and dunks.

The only Indiana player to make a field goal during one 11-minute, 45-second stretch in the first half, Ballo was 8 of 9 from the field at halftime while nine other players combined to go just 4 of 22.

“It was interesting, but obviously we got to see him for a long time at Arizona and we knew how good his development was. I thought the guys did a good job,” Gonzaga assistant Brian Michaelson said. “To his credit, he hit a bunch of those hooks which obviously he’s really developed that touch and he’s become such a good roller. The size was always there, but his ability to catch and finish those rollers was really good. I thought we did a nice job of keeping him off the glass.”

Gonzaga threw a handful of bigs at Ballo, starting with Graham Ike, moving on to Braden Huff when Ike picked up two early fouls and then trying Ben Gregg after Huff was whistled for his second foul with 12 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the half.

Gregg, the only player on Gonzaga’s roster who overlapped with Ballo during the 2020-21 season, played a handful of minutes at the “5” in a small-ball lineup and held his own against his former teammate, who was limited to two points during the final eight minutes of the first half.

“That’s the beauty of Ben Gregg and also a guy that’s a veteran in your program,” Michaelson said. “We didn’t even really need to tell him anything. Go in there and battle and Ben’s a smart enough guy that he knows a handful of plays and he figured it out. Not only did we not play Ben at the five (in a game), we didn’t practice it. But when you can just get Ben to make plays, it really helps. And Ben’s a tough dude and Ben’s faced him, but again Oumar’s a different dude than he used to be.”

Ballo’s scoring production has fluctuated through five games, but the veteran post has been efficient for Indiana, making nearly 69% of his shots while averaging 9.0 rebounds per game.

“He’s gotten better since we’ve gotten him,” Woodson said. “I have no complaints with big fella, he’s been doing everything that’s been asked of him and we’ve just got to get the supporting cast clicking on all cylinders.”