1. Complete effort from the frontcourt
Because I consider Strawther more of a wing/forward, I’ll put his stats in a separate category. He had 11 points, the guards total had 15, while the frontcourt had 49 of the team’s 75 points. I said before that Drew Timme should have a good night against the smaller Fousseyni Traore and he did lead all players with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
But by his lofty, All-American standards, Timme wasn’t spectacular. He took 19 shots and missed quite a few easy ones down low. The good news for Gonzaga is that he wasn’t the only forward that had a good night. Anton Watson had 18 points and eight rebounds and was nearly perfect in the first half, while Ben Gregg came off the bench to chip in with 10 points and six rebounds in 13 minutes. Even Efton Reid had a bucket in the few minutes he was on the court in the first half.
One thing Coach Mark Few does better than almost anyone else is getting the bigs the ball. At times, including tonight, they forced it a bit much which caused some of the 16 turnovers. But by in large, the frontcourt was what kept the team in the game for the first 36 minutes.
Far as the final few minutes goes…