Gonzaga rewind: Zags turn page after rough finish against Washington

Dec. 10—SEATTLE — If you predicted Washington coach Mike Hopkins possibly breaking his hand, Koren Johnson's falling, back-to-the-hoop circus shot and Gonzaga's offense going bone dry after a smooth 48-point first half, consider sprinting to the nearest Powerball ticket outlet.

It was all offense in the first half and essentially the opposite down the stretch for the seventh-ranked Zags, who watched an 11-point lead melt away in a 78-73 setback Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Somewhere along the way, a frustrated Hopkins hurt his right hand when he pounded his fist on the bench. "Bad decision," he acknowledged, before making a late-night visit to the training staff.

Hopkins was all smiles in the locker room when UW players celebrated by drenching him with water. "Just an unbelievable team win," he said. "It was just awesome."

It was a different scene inside Gonzaga's locker room as players processed a disheartening loss.

"Everyone just kind of talked to each other, just saying to keep your head up," senior forward Anton Watson said. "We've got a long season, big games coming up. That's basically what we told each other."

Gonzaga might not want to rewind the videotape of this one, but we'll take a second look at what happened in the final 10 minutes, Nolan Hickman's homecoming and UW center Franck Kepnang's impact.

Not making their points

In the Zags' two losses, they went 0-fer in the second half on 3-pointers. It was 0 for 13 vs. Purdue, 0 for 9 against the Huskies. Other similarities: GU led by five at the half against Purdue before scoring just 28 second-half points. The Zags had a six-point edge on UW at the break but mustered just 25 points in closing half.

Turnovers: Nine of 14 in the final 20 minutes vs. Purdue, nine of 12 in the final 20 against Washington.

The Zags looked rattled and rushed in the closing stretch. Washington was hardly error-free rallying to its first win in the series since 2005, but the Huskies made fewer mistakes than Gonzaga when the game was in the balance.

"We were missing shots we usually make," Watson said. "Just turnovers were the bigger part of that. Game started picking up, refs stared making calls, we just have to stay calm through those moments. We're learning still. It's a new team."

"We've had some moments (like that) this year, like all of our teams have," head coach Mark Few said. "It's still December. We've had some dry spells on offense over in Honolulu and different spots during the year."

The numbers weren't pretty. Gonzaga didn't have a field goal for over seven minutes. The Zags committed nine turnovers — five in the final 3:15 — and had one assist in the second half.

They were on an 88-point pace through 30 minutes before scoring seven points in the last 10 minutes. They misfired on seven 3-point attempts in the last 6:06.

Hickman's homecoming

Junior guard Nolan Hickman, with his family sitting right behind Gonzaga's bench, had a monster opening half in his hometown, dropping three 3-pointers and scoring 15 of his 17 points to help GU take a 48-42 halftime edge.

"He did a nice job of taking what they were giving him," Few said of Hickman's first-half performance.

Hickman, Watson and point guard Ryan Nembhard all logged 40 minutes.

"It's tough," Few said. "We played those guards 40 minutes but in a high-level game like this, that's probably our only option at this point. We probably could have played our big lineup a little more, just to maybe get them some time to settle down."

It was Hickman's first time playing at Alaska Airlines Arena. He hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored nine points as a freshman in Gonzaga's Battle in Seattle loss to Alabama at Climate Pledge Arena.

"It was cool," Hickman said of playing in front of family and friends. "Wish we could have come out with a win."

Big Dawg

The 6-foot-11 Kepnang, who spent his first two seasons at Oregon, was a key figure in UW's upset win.

He scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half. The native of Cameroon had seven rebounds and his five blocked shots set the tone as UW surprisingly won the paint points 34-32.

"He was playing out of his mind," Watson said. "He's an aggressive player, he brings energy and this crowd, probably the most fans they've had in a while, they were loving it. Respect to him. He was playing super hard, lot of blocks, lot of rebounds. He did what his team needed."

So did Watson, who scored 13 points and matched his career highs with 13 rebounds and five steals. It was his fourth double-double in nine games this season. Watson has 176 career steals, ranking fourth on GU's career list behind No. 3 Kevin Pangos (177), No. 2 Josh Perkins (178) and No. 1 John Stockton (262).