College hoops roundup: Williams powers WSU, Gonzaga rolls, and Huskies win on Senior Night

It was a successful weekend for the Washington college basketball programs, with just one loss between the three major schools in the state.

As tournament time nears, Gonzaga continues push for top overall seed

While they weren’t exactly playing the best of the WCC, the No. 1 Bulldogs were just happy to be at home, and happy to come out with two dominant wins over St. Mary’s and San Diego.

The Bulldogs (22-0, 13-0 WCC) held both of their opponents to under 70 points and under 50% shooting in their two victories, extending their perfect season with March just around the corner.

“I think we’re really playing tough, hard nosed, attentive defense,” head coach Mark Few said. “I think we’re making plays on the defensive end, I think we’re contesting shots. We don’t have great rim protection … we’re doing a good job on executing the plan and mixing and matching some of our ball screen coverages.”

In its weekend-opening victory against the Gaels (11-7, 2-5 WCC), Gonzaga punished them in the first half, racing out to a 51-24 halftime lead. The Gaels made just nine shots in the first half before nearly doubling that output in the second half. It made no difference in a 87-65 win for the Bulldogs.

Four players scored in double figures for Gonzaga, led by Corey Kispert’s 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

“It’s kind of who we are this year. I don’t know if we’ve had a game without at least three double digit guys … that’s just who we are,” Few said. “We’re a team. I’ve said this before, this isn’t the most physically imposing squad we’ve sent out there … This is a team. They move it and they share it and they make the right basketball play for the most part, the offensive numbers are reflecting that.”

And with the tournament just around the corner, and a No. 1 overall seed dangling in front of them, the Bulldogs will need to start playing their best basketball as the regular season winds down. Since struggling in the middle point of WCC play, and even facing a halftime deficit against struggling Pacific, the Bulldogs have doubled down and are back to annihilating teams they should annihilate.

Gonzaga’s second game of the weekend went about the same as the first, holding a 51-22 lead by the half over the Toreros (3-8, 2-5 WCC). The Bulldogs allowed the Toreros to make just five of their 20 three-point attempts, and shot over 55% from the field in a 106-69 win.

The Bulldogs will stay at home for the second consecutive weekend in their last clashes until the WCC tournament, if they decide to play. Gonzaga hasn’t made a formal decision on if they will play in a conference tournament this season, because of COVID-19 restrictions and its factor in being eligible for the NCAA tournament bubble in Indiana.

To close out the regular season, the Bulldogs will welcome Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount to Spokane.

Noah Williams helps WSU sweep final home weekend

72 points in two games.

In a historic two-game stretch, sophomore Noah Williams put the Pac-12 on notice and helped Washington State defeat Cal and Stanford to record a weekend sweep.

“I didn’t know Noah had that in him to be honest,” head coach Kyle Smith said. “I know he’s a great competitor and he’s fearless. He just was in attack mode all night. Didn’t make too many bad decisions … he was really locked in.”

His second effort of the weekend against Stanford made for an instant classic. In a nationally-televised game, and without leading scorer Isaac Bonton once again, Williams put the Cougars (14-10, 7-10 Pac-12) on his back, scoring 40 points in a 85-76 triple overtime win over the Cardinal (14-9, 10-7 Pac-12).

It would take a herculean effort, and a last second shot at the buzzer to get it done, but there was no doubt who led WSU to it’s victory against a potential tournament squad in Stanford.

“He was not wanting to lose,” Smith said. “He’s a really good competitor, he’s probably got the best belief of anyone I’ve ever coached.”

Down by three points in regulation and with just 10 seconds to work with, Williams ran up the floor and shuffled into a side-step three-pointer that splashed in with just seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. After two more deadlocked overtime periods, WSU exploded in the third to grab their second win of the weekend.

It’s first win featured 32 more points from Williams, who shot 12-of-20 from the field and nearly recorded a triple-double, with nine rebounds and seven assists as well.

But with nearly seven minutes to go in the 82-51 blowout victory over Cal, Smith pulled Williams from the lineup, and after a light argument from Williams, sat him on the bench for the remainder of the game.

“Relax Russell Westbrook, we need you Saturday to be fresh,” Smith said in his presser after the Cal win.

Smith’s decision seemed to be fortuitous later in the weekend, with Williams playing 54 minutes in the win over the Cardinal, and just 31 in the win over the Bears (8-17, 3-15 Pac-12).

Washington State’s two wins this weekend mean that it has clinched a winning record for the first time since the 2010-11 season, and in just year two of Smith’s tenure in Pullman.

The Cougs will close the regular season next weekend with a trip to the desert against the Arizona schools.

Washington’s defense showcases improvement in weekend split

The Huskies (5-17, 4-13 Pac-12) have struggled all season on the defensive end. Constantly allowing teams to feast off turnovers and impose their will inside, a switch flipped this weekend.

On Senior Night against Cal, UW held the Bears to 51 points in just its second double-digit victory of the year. In the 62-51 win, guard Quade Green led the way, pouring in 17 points and helping control the pace of the game when Cal began to make a push in the second half.

“There’s a lot of emotion on senior night,” head coach Mike Hopkins said. “He was a lot more in control. When he’s playing like that, he’s as good as any guard on the planet.”

But while Green helped the offense throughout, it was Washington’s defense that carried the day, holding Cal to 27% shooting. While the Huskies struggled to keep the Bears off the line, who attempted 27 foul shots, Cal couldn’t do anything else.

“I thought there was some really good post defense, I thought we did a really good job on their three-point shooters, knowing where they are and taking away their space,” Hopkins said. “They had a solid awareness tonight, for sure.”

And though the Huskies couldn’t manage a win against Stanford earlier in the weekend, for most of the first half, they were defending very well.

“We couldn’t score for a long period, turned it over, which led to a lot of their baskets in the first half, and the foul shots,” Hopkins said. “In the second half, they were cutting well, they started feeling more comfortable in what we were doing, I think the first half we threw them through a loop.”

In the 79-61 loss to Stanford, the Huskies held the Cardinal to just 36 first half points, but couldn’t keep them off the foul line, and get to the charity stripe themselves. Stanford shot 20 free throws, compared to just one from UW.

After a rough start, the Cardinal found their groove in the second half, and decimated UW in the paint, scoring 50 points down low compared to just 28 paint points from the Huskies.

Washington will play a makeup game against Arizona State this Tuesday in Phoenix, and then play them again two days later to make up for a previously postponed game earlier this season that was supposed to be in Seattle. The Huskies will close their regular season in Tucson against Arizona.