Mark Few praises Gonzaga for building ‘harder outer shell’ during recent WCC run

PULLMAN – By the time Nolan Hickman raised up for a corner 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining in the first half, deflating Washington State’s crowd with a shot that would extend Gonzaga’s lead to 24 points, it was almost hard to remember what transpired during the first four minutes at Beasley Coliseum.

To rehash, the opening stretch began with Graham Ike’s layup on the first possession, followed by a prolonged Gonzaga dry spell in which the visitors missed six consecutive shots, went nearly four minutes without scoring, and yielded two 3-pointers to WSU as the Cougars raced out to an 8-2 lead.

WSU spent the next 35 minutes of Wednesday’s rivalry game trying to recapture whatever it found in the opening five while Gonzaga continued to demonstrate the consistency at both ends that’s allowed Mark Few’s squad to peel off five consecutive wins, encountering only slight turbulence during their most dominant stretch of West Coast Conference play.

“I think we kind of got off to a slow start there, a couple turnovers I think, a couple missed opportunities at the rim, but the resiliency of this group, we’re starting to kind of I feel like get a little harder outer shell here and powered through some stuff,” Few said. “Obviously, there was some good energy in here.”

Looking only at scoring margin, Gonzaga’s closest call over the past 19 days was an 11-point victory over San Francisco last week at McCarthey Athletic Center. The Dons got within two possessions on a few occasions inside the final three minutes, but the Zags never wavered, coming up with free throws and defensive stops to finish the game with a double-digit advantage.

Gonzaga’s margin of victory in the four other games? The Zags defeated Loyola Marymount by 20 points, Pacific by 17, Pepperdine by 52 and WSU by 21. Prior to GU’s last loss, a 62-58 nailbiter at first-place Saint Mary’s, the Zags dispatched Portland by 43 points and stung Oregon State by 38, giving them an averaging winning margin of 28.8 ppg in their past seven victories.

“It’s actually good just having us get momentum this time of year,” said Hickman, who led the Zags with 23 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the 3-point line on Wednesday. “And I think we’re just starting to hit it off. We’ve got a tough schedule coming up, tough games, but I think this is what we need heading into March and I think my guys are going to be more than capable of pulling everything off.”

That belief is largely a byproduct of GU’s improved defense. After yielding 88.7 points over a four-game stretch against San Diego, WSU, Oregon State and Santa Clara, the Zags went back to ground zero and spent tireless hours reviewing defensive coverages and making tweaks to the rotation to tighten things up.

Few handed out passing grades after Gonzaga limited WSU to 33% shooting in the first half, forcing the Cougars to go 1 of 11 at one point.

“I thought for the most part, except there right when they made that run, it was really solid,” Few said. “We were, I thought, dictating their shots. They’re an interesting team to play. You don’t face that, your guards getting posted up so aggressively night in and night out. I thought these guys did a really good job of fighting, especially Nolan and KB (Khalif Battle).

“Then we got out on their 3-point shooters. They’re a dangerous 3-point-shooting team and I think we stayed pretty disciplined there with our coverages and drove their numbers down. So yeah, it was a good defensive night.”

Gonzaga’s offense, averaging 88.4 ppg in conference play, and improved defensive play, now 39th nationally in adjusted efficiency per KenPom, have been a difficult combination for WCC teams trying to keep up with the Zags for 40 minutes.

Over GU’s past seven wins, only one team (LMU) has held a second-half lead against the Zags, sneaking ahead for 56 seconds in an eventual 73-53 loss. Gonzaga, meanwhile, has been in front for 137 minutes, 51 seconds, leading for the entirety of the second half against Portland, Oregon State, Pacific, Pepperdine and WSU.

“It’s February, man,” Few said. “When the games go around, you’ve got to go and perform, and they went out and performed. It was a nice crowd tonight. These guys have played at Madison Square Garden and last year about this time at Rupp Arena, I mean our core group. So they know how to handle this and even some of the smaller places like Saint Mary’s are pretty good environments. … So I think that helped us (Wednesday) and hey, we’ve got another big one on Saturday.”