Dave Boling: Despite fifth-place finish, Gonzaga leaves the Bahamas on a positive note

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – In the end, they didn’t win the Battle 4 Atlantis.

In fact, No. 3-ranked Gonzaga finished fifth in the eight-team tournament, as none of the highest-ranked teams made it to the title game.

The 90-65 win over Davidson late Friday night, in front of a meager crowd, amounted to a continued Battle 4 Recovery after the overtime loss in the opener Wednesday to West Virginia.

The solid handling of Indiana on Thursday was the first step. And the romp over a resolute Davidson squad offered validation and allows them to take a 7-1 record into the game against Kentucky in Seattle on Saturday.

GU had looked so smooth and synched and interconnected in wins over Baylor and San Diego State and Arizona State, that the high ranking seemed warranted.

So the loss to West Virginia was an eye-opener.

“I think we just let one get away from us,” said Ryan Nembhard, point guard maestro, “We’ve got to be consistent; we can’t have off nights. There’s a lot of things we can learn from this and go back to the drawing board.”

What might be the bullet points on that drawing board?

Surely, the Zags seemed to correct the perimeter-defense issues that contributed to the loss to the Mountaineers.

Another problem raised by West Virginia was what the Zags called “denying our actions.” The interpretation is that the customary entry to plays by Nembhard were being stymied by the Mountaineers’ style of defense.

Coach Mark Few has praised Nembhard several times this season as deserving more national attention. He’s absolutely right. Nembhard’s 39 assists in the three tournament games was an Atlantis record, and his total of 14 against Davidson was the single-game tourney record.

He came into the game leading the nation.

Juggling minutes for the Zag frontcourt will continue to be an evolving calculus. Against Davidson, senior Ben Gregg again played a huge influence, coming off the bench and leading the team with a career-high 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field, along with eight rebounds.

Gregg had big minutes and several emphatic rebounds in the Indiana game, too.

Again, post Graham Ike finished with nice numbers, 18 points and 10 rebounds. But at times it seems as if he’s missing shots that should be falling, like two from point-blank range to start the second half. He’s shooting 53.4% on field goals, down from 60.9% last season.

Against Indiana, the Zags were stung by 25 points by huge center Oumar Ballo. Defeating teams with a productive big was a problem last season. But when Ike and Braden Huff were saddled with foul problems, Gregg filled in at the post and was effective in limiting Ballo in the second half.

One area that isn’t a concern is the free-throw line, where the Zags netted 54 of 59 attempts in their three games.

The ease of Friday’s win will be a thing of the past quickly as GU meets No. 8 Kentucky at Climate Pledge Arena, then travels to New York’s Madison Square Garden to take on Connecticut. The Huskies will surely fall from their No. 2 ranking after losing three straight in Maui, Hawaii, to Memphis, Colorado and Dayton.

And after that, it’s UCLA in the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

Another attention-grabbing outcome was Saint Mary’s defeating USC 71-36. The Zags played the Trojans in a preseason exhibition and lost 96-93.

It was an exhibition, of course, but, wow, that’s a huge disparity. The Gaels again will be ready to challenge.

Going 2-1 over three days was not optimal for the Zags, but the loss was the result of fixable issues.

“It’s just about going out and executing,” Few said. “Whether it’s offensively, playing with patience and taking care of the ball, (and) defensively, executing the plan.”