Most years, Gonzaga’s most difficult games come in the first couple of months of the season — when they load up the schedule with highly ranked non-conference opponents — and during March Madness.
But this season, the ninth-ranked Bulldogs are finding some stiff competition in the West Coast Conference.
Gonzaga (17-1, 5-0) held off a late charge to win 99-93 at San Diego on Dec. 30, rallied from a 13-point, second-half deficit to defeat visiting Seattle University 80-72 in overtime on Jan. 2, and overcame an eight-point deficit to beat visiting Santa Clara 89-77 last week.
The Bulldogs will travel to Pullman, Wash., on Thursday night to face Washington State (8-10, 3-2).
“I don’t know if we respond well to adversity or not,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “It would be nice if we didn’t create our own adversity with the turnovers and things like that.”
Graham Ike saved the Bulldogs against Santa Clara, scoring 34 points on 13-of-17 shooting from the field and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Emmanuel Innocenti added 13 points and Braden Huff 12, the only other Gonzaga players to reach double figures in scoring.
Huff said he wasn’t surprised by Ike’s big night.
“We work out together, I know he’s capable of knocking down those shots,” Huff said. “He had it going from the jump, and he didn’t let up at all. He could be a 20-plus-point-per-game scorer, but he sacrifices a lot to win for the team, so I think you saw how dominant he is. Definitely in my eyes the best big in the country.”
The Bulldogs, who have won 10 straight games, led at the intermission just once on their three-game homestand that ended last Thursday and trailed by at least eight points in the first half in all three contests. But they had a plus-49 scoring margin in the second half and overtime of those games.
“I think it’s definitely some of the veteran leadership,” Ike said. “I really think it was the 7 a.m. practices in the summer. It built a callus; we didn’t have a choice, and nobody batted an eye or said anything in regard to trying to get out of it. Everybody stood together and said, âWe’re getting through this,’ and it just built a callus for who we are today.”
The Cougars, meanwhile, won five of six games before an 88-82 loss Saturday at Saint Mary’s. Washington State rallied from an 18-point deficit to pull within three with seven minutes remaining but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Freshman Ace Glass led the Cougars with 24 points, and ND Okafor added 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
“I’m proud of this team for getting better,” Cougars coach David Riley said, “but the most dangerous thing you can have is a team that feels OK after a loss. And I think that there’s a lot of guys in there that feel like they have some what-ifs, and we gotta make sure that we don’t have that feeling on Thursday night (against Gonzaga).”
The Bulldogs have won the past six meetings dating to 2010.
