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Note: All rankings via kenpom.com

No. 8 Gonzaga 86 (18-1, 6-0 WCC)
No. 147 WSU 65 (8-11, 3-3)

The Cougars fell behind early after a plethora of turnovers led to easy buckets for the Bulldogs, fueling a 15-0 run that put WSU in a 15-5 hole less than eight minutes into the game. It felt as if it might be a short night, but Simon Hildebrandt hit 3s on three consecutive possessions to pull WSU back within one, and for most of the rest of the first half, that shooting was contagious: Behind a flurry of threes from players up and down the roster, the Cougs would lead by five with six minutes to go in the half.

But it was all downhill in the last five minutes. A 15-3 run by the Zags sent WSU to the locker room down 10.

A 3-pointer by Emmanuel Ugbo pulled the Cougs back to within 9 with 18 minutes to go in the game, but that was the last time the margin would be in single digits. Gonzaga led by 22 with about 10 minutes to play, and the closest the Cougs could come was 15 the rest of the way.

In A Minute

• Recap from our friend (and friend of the pod) Jamey Vinnick at Cougfan

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: JERONE MORTON with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting (3-of-6 3s), two rebounds, two assists, zero turnovers in 30 minutes.

• One stat to tell the tale: WSU shot just 8-of-24 (33%) on 2s while shooting 13-of-28 (46%) from beyond the arc.

Highlights

Three Thoughts

1. Injuries, again

WSU played without wings Rihards Vavers (who picked up a concussion at some point after Saint Mary’s), Tomas Thrastarson (who is out for a few more weeks with a stress fracture), and Kase Wynott (who hasn’t dressed for a game since Chaminade). That left the Cougs with zero actual wings to play in this one. Injuries are part of the game, of course, and we’ll get no sympathy from Gonzaga fans — Braden Huff, generally recognized to be their second best player, is now out for a month or two (as the broadcast reminded us every 60 seconds or so) — but to get hit so hard at one position really messes up the strategic options available to coach David Riley. (Never mind the fact that there might not be a deeper team in America than Gonzaga.)

Having Vavers available was very likely not going to close a 20-point gap, but on a night where the Cougars struggled to get anything going to the basket and got murdered on the glass, having another shooter available who also is a pretty decent rebounder would have mitigated at least some of the Cougs’ struggles in this one.

2. Paint problems

The Cougars haven’t always played great defense this year, but the one thing they could count on was their defensive rebounding — they’ve been one of the very best at that in the country. Strong defensive rebounding usually wins out over teams with strong offensive rebounding … but not last night. Gonzaga picked up 47% of their own misses — by far a season high allowed by WSU — leading to 19 second-chance points.

ND Okafor — WSU’s best rebounder — fouled out in just 12 minutes trying to contend with Graham Ike¹ . WSU’s other two bigs, Eemeli Yalaho and Ugbo, grabbed just five defensive rebounds between them, despite playing 29 minutes each. If the Cougs rebound at their normal rate and Gonzaga only gets about 25% of their misses, you figure the second-chance points are probably cut in half, and it’s a pretty different game — or, at least, a closer one.

On the other end, Gonzaga made life absolutely miserable for the Cougs inside the arc.² As the offense has surged over the past couple of weeks, WSU has gotten better and better at getting shots at the rim, making no less than 56% of their 2s in the last three games — including 73% against Saint Mary’s 7-footers.

But against Gonzaga, getting to the rim was a major chore — WSU’s 24 attempts from 2 was their lowest in a month — and once there, the Cougars missed shot after shot after shot. It’s darn near impossible to win when shooting just 33% on your 2s,³ and this is another spot where the Cougs really, really could have used Okafor, who can deploy an array of post moves and has made 59% of his twos on the season, a team high.

Instead, it was Ike who did all the damage, making 11 of his 15 2s on his way to 23 points with six offensive rebounds, five defensive rebounds, and five assists.

3. Not that bad

You can’t put lipstick on a 21-point home loss, so I’m not going to try and do that. However, losing by 21 to one of the top 10 teams in the country — they’re up to No. 6 in the kenpom rankings — isn’t the sort of thing I’m inclined to get worked up about, either. Here’s a list of teams who have lost to Gonzaga by as much or more than that this season:

• Oklahoma (25)

• Creighton (27)

• Southern Utah (72 - not a typo)

• Maryland (39)

• Kentucky (35)

• North Florida (51)

• Campbell (28)

• Pepperdine (40)

• Loyola Marymount (35)

It sucks, but whatever — the Cougars fought hard, held a lead late in the first half, and didn’t get completely run over. Their Game Score of 54 at barttorvik.com suggests they played only slightly worse than expected. I was hoping for a closer game, but whatever — that’s all good enough for me as an indicator that they’ve still got the juice to win a bunch more games the rest of this year.

Up Next: at San Francisco

We knew the probability of getting a win in these last two games was very low. But the end of this tough three-game stretch has now arrived with a trip to face the Dons in the Bay Area — and it’s a game the Cougs absolutely can win.

I’m not saying they should. San Francisco is rated more highly that WSU in the predictive metrics, and they’ll be underdogs on the road — probably by seven or eight points. But the Dons aren’t exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment, struggling with injuries of their own. They’ve lost two of three, including on Tuesday at home to Saint Mary’s by 14 points, where they were never really in the game after the first five minutes.

The Dons are beatable. Tipoff is at 4 p.m. PT on Sunday on ESPN+.

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1  Your mileage may vary as to how legit at least two of those foul calls were.

2  This, by the way, is what really separates a team like Gonzaga: Their ability to score gets all the attention, but their defense is also elite.

3  Making only 10-of-20 free throws doesn’t help, either.