NCAA Basketball: Best games from 2019-20 season – Gonzaga vs. San Francisco

An unexpected clash between Gonzaga and San Francisco became one of conference play’s most exciting games; let’s relive what happened.

The excitement was quickly hushed last season when the national pandemic caused the cancellation of most of the postseason, though there was still a pretty fascinating season in the previous months.

In this series, we’re taking a look at the 40 best games of the 2019-20 season, having already looked closely at two very different performances from the season. Next, our focus turns towards a monumental upset that just wasn’t meant to be.

38. #2 Gonzaga 83, San Francisco 79

February 1, 2020, War Memorial at the Sobrato Center in San Francisco, CA

As the calendar turned to February, it’s fair to say that a majority of Gonzaga fans were already looking ahead to March. They still had a few tough WCC games ahead but were just two weeks removed dismantling BYU.

If Gonzaga thought they were going to coast through most of the WCC schedule, then they had another thing coming on this cold February night. San Francisco welcomed the Bulldogs with their eyes on pulling a major upset, and for a majority of the contest it looked like this could be a reality.

Gonzaga was already looking like a well-oiled machine, entering the game at 22-1 and as the nation’s No. 2 team. They had been shocked by Michigan in the final of the Battle 4 Atlantis, but already boasted wins over Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington. Winners of fourteen straight, they had faced little resistance to this point in WCC play, with only one of their first eight games being a single-digit affair.

On the home side, San Francisco was supposed to be rebuilding, with star player Frankie Ferrari and coach Kyle Smith both gone from the program. New coach Todd Golden had done a solid job putting the pieces in place, but there had been ups and downs.

While they had upended Pac-12 program California, the Dons had also given Portland what would end up being their only win in WCC play. However, just a week earlier they had beaten BYU at home, promoting optimism that the same could happen against the highly-ranked Bulldogs.

Gonzaga got off to their usual start, but then things turned around for the Bulldogs. The Dons defense locked down and their shooters got hot, and only six minutes into the game their lead was 20-10. San Francisco built their lead as large as 12 points on multiple occasions, including surviving a scoreless run in the middle of the half.

Despite their sloppy play, Gonzaga was down just eight points at the half and came out playing better ball. An and-1 from Drew Timme allowed the Bulldogs to finally tie the game six minutes into the half, but both teams were ready for the ensuing battle. The game went back and forth throughout the second half, though Gonzaga finally pulled ahead by 5 with just under four minutes left in the game, seemingly in a position to pull away.

But San Francisco wasn’t finished, scoring the next 6 points and reclaiming the lead, punctuated by a pair of free throws from Taavi Jurkatamm. Corey Kispert’s layup and subsequent free throw gave Gonzaga the lead on the next possession, giving the Bulldogs a 2-point lead in the game’s final minute. Corey Kispert’s jumper with 35 seconds left built an 80-76 lead that turned out to be just too large for the Dons to overcome.

Despite 15 turnovers, Gonzaga did enough to claw back into the game and upended the raucous San Francisco crowd. Petrusev led the way with 23 points and 11 rebounds while Timme added 19 points in the win.

The Bulldogs made their 3-pointers, despite barely shooting any, while the Dons needed a few more long-range shots to pull off the upset. Still, the Dons got double-digit scoring efforts from five players, led by a 14-point effort from Jordan Ratinho.

As if this game was exciting enough, these two teams would meet again in the WCC semifinal just over a bunch later, leading to another hard-fought 4-point win from Gonzaga. The Bulldogs hadn’t been tested quite like this since the Battle 4 Atlantis and those other power conference games.

They would be outmatched three weeks later on the road at BYU, but aside from that didn’t struggle in WCC play, winning the conference tournament and securing what would have been a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite losing the game, San Francisco put up an amazing fight, coming up just short to pull off what would have been a monumental upset. The Dons were still figuring things out this season, but it seems like Golden was certainly the right man for the job. They would finish the season 5th in the WCC, winning a pair of games in the conference tournament before that close duel with Gonzaga knocked them out.

Gonzaga was a national title threat and will continue to be under Mark Few’s leadership. They are rarely tested in conference play, even crushing rival Saint Mary’s by 30 this season, but San Francisco came to fight. The Dons might still be a year or two away from competing for NCAA Tournament bids but showed they’re a force to be reckoned with. These two programs gave us a highly entertaining clash in perhaps what was Gonzaga’s hardest-fought conference win.