Feb. 23—Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman just finished answering a question on playing in their final home game when Nembhard offered an unsolicited reminder that Gonzaga isn’t short on motivation with the regular season winding down.
“We still got a season left to play,’ Nembhard said Saturday following the Zags’ disappointing 74-67 loss to Saint Mary’s on Senior Night at the McCarthey Athletic Center. “There’s a lot to play for still. There’s a lot we can still accomplish this year and we’re going to figure it out.”
Hickman chimed in “for sure” four times during Nembhard’s reply.
That sentiment went hand in hand with Nembhard’s comments to a previous question on the quick turnaround before Tuesday’s game at Santa Clara, which dropped 23 3-pointers — tying the Division I record for a road team — in a 109-79 victory over Washington State on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s a short prep,” the point guard said, “so we have to flush this one and move on to the next.”
And how do the Zags right the ship? Almost in unison, GU’s starting backcourt said, “Gotta win.” Hickman added: “Figure out a way to dig all these ‘Ws’ out and that should be it.”
Part of that equation, particularly if Gonzaga gets a third crack at the Gaels in the West Coast Conference Tournament, will be addressing rebounding and zone defense issues that contributed to Saint Mary’s fourth win in the last five series meetings.
Rebounding on the boards
Rebounding was at the top of Gonzaga’s scouting report prior to both meetings with the Gaels, ranked second nationally at plus-9.5 per game. That nearly matches their plus-9 in a pair of wins over the Zags. SMC held a 38-26 edge Saturday.
The Gaels are plus-6 per game on the offensive boards with a 30-18 advantage in second-chance points in two victories by a combined 11 points.
“That’s what they do,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “You have to be ready to fight them on the glass physically. Our guys tried but we just had some bad matchups in there, especially when they go to the two bigs (Harry Wessels and Mitchell Saxen). They were just throwing our guys out of the way. We just weren’t quite tough enough or big enough.”
The 7-foot-1, 270-pound Wessels has been seeing more playing time since coming up big late, including a blocked shot on Graham Ike in the closing seconds, in SMC’s 62-58 win in Moraga. He logged a season-high 29 minutes Saturday and chipped in six points, four rebounds and one block.
Saxen, at 6-10 and 250 pounds, is third nationally in offensive rebounds.
“Plus-12 on the boards,” said Gaels coach Randy Bennett, asked about the impact of the two-big alignment. “It gives us a better matchup on Ike. Harry is big and strong. He can, I’m not going to say he neutralizes (Ike), but it gives us a better matchup there and then Saxen can guard their 4s. Paulius (Murauskas) was a little under the weather and got in foul trouble, so he didn’t play as much, but he’s a key player for us, too.”
Zoning out
This isn’t one of Saint Mary’s better 3-point shooting teams, entering Saturday’s game No. 223 at 33.2%. However, in two victories over Gonzaga, the Gaels have hit 17 of 44 (38.6%) while the Zags are 7 of 31 (22.6%) — a 30-point edge in 3-point production.
Gonzaga’s zone defense helped trigger a second-half comeback in Moraga but it wasn’t as effective in the rematch. The Zags lost track of freshman guard Mikey Lewis, who hit 5 of 7 from distance, including the game’s biggest shot with an and-one 3 with 5:51 remaining.
That was followed by Luke Barrett’s triple 30 seconds later, putting Saint Mary’s on top 65-57.
Bennett pointed out Gonzaga’s defensive improvement in recent weeks, but he added that the Gaels “were more prepared” for the zone this time around.
“They caught us a little off guard the last time,” Bennett said. “We’ve had three weeks to get better at it (zone offense) and I think we’re a lot better. We get Mikey on court earlier when we see that. He just changes the whole thing. He gives you another shooter. You don’t want to leave that one open.”
The Zags did at times and paid for it. Lewis has scored 34 points with nine 3s in 40 minutes against the Zags.
“It was just miscommunications, not knowing where he was at,” Hickman said.
Added Few: “We were supposed to be shading to (Lewis). We had a couple of errors that really stung us.”
