Gonzaga, Washington renew in-state basketball rivalry
A lot has changed since the Gonzaga men’s basketball team last played Washington.
In the most recent meeting between the schools, forwards Drew Timme and Anton Watson were freshmen who came off the bench and played a combined 18 minutes in an 83-76 win for the Zags.
Three years later, Timme and Watson are a starting frontcourt duo and will certainly be more of a factor this time around when No. 18 Gonzaga (6-3) hosts Washington (7-2) on Friday at 6 p.m.
The two seniors are averaging career-highs in points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks per game this season, while leading the Zags through a schedule that has featured five Quad 1 opponents thus far.
Timme and Watson helped the Zags to their most recent Quad 1 win, a 73-66 victory over Kent State on Monday. Timme finished with 29 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, and Watson added eight points and five rebounds.
While a win against Washington would only register as a Quad 3 win for Gonzaga, hosting the Huskies will bring even more intensity — with the matchup being one of the premier in-state rivalries in all of college basketball.
“We’re going to have to buckle down and really fight and bring that grit because they’re going to want to compete for the top team in the state, so it’s going to be a good game for sure,” Timme said.
The Huskies are coming off a 73-63 victory over Colorado on Monday, despite being without their leading shot-blocker Franck Kepnang. The 6-foot-10 big man suffered a season-ending knee injury during a 66-65 loss to Oregon State on Thursday.
However, as Washington showed against Colorado, the team has other big men who can step up in place of Kepnang.
Center Braxton Meah finished with a game-high-tying 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, seven rebounds and three blocks in 27 minutes.
Meah was the anchor of Washington’s zone defense, which forced 18 turnovers, and held Colorado to 44.1% shooting from the field and 29.4% from 3-point range.
Keion Brooks Jr., a transfer from Kentucky, is another integral piece to a Huskies’ defense that ranks 54th in the nation by KenPom.
Brooks Jr. recorded two blocks and a steal against Colorado, as he also used his 7-foot-1 wingspan to finish difficult shots over defenders for most of his 14 points.
Standing at 6-foot-7, Brooks Jr. was part of a starting lineup that didn’t have a player shorter than 6-foot-4.
That’s a much taller group than the one Gonzaga has been opening games with. Zags starting guards Rasir Bolton and Nolan Hickman are 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-2, respectively.
Still, Gonzaga has 6-foot-7 guard Julian Strawther in its backcourt, which gives the Zags some more size on the perimeter.
Strawther’s length has allowed him to be a weapon on both ends of the floor, as he leads the team with 8.6 rebounds per game and shoots 44.4% from 3-point range.
Off the bench, Hunter Sallis has been another guard who can provide two-way support for the Zags.
Sallis scored only three points against Kent State, but his defensive effort was pivotal in keeping the Golden Flashes’ backcourt to 10-for-34 from 3-point range.
One of Sallis’ most impressive defensive possessions came with a minute to go when he was continuously rotating onto different Kent State players, before taking a charge to force a turnover.
“Hunter just put his head down and made huge plays,” Strawther said. “Taking charges, those are winning plays and that’s exactly what we need from Hunter, and that’s what we expect from him.”
If Sallis puts together a similar defensive showing on Friday, the Zags will benefit as the Huskies have several elite scorers in their backcourt, most notably 6-foot-7 guard Cole Bajema.
Bajema has scored in double-digits for three-straight games and is a 38.9% 3-point shooter this season. He’s also averaging 5.2 rebounds and is playing a career-high 30.6 points per game.
With Friday being Washington’s first time playing Gonzaga in Spokane since 2018, the players and coaches anticipate a thrilling contest at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
“It really has been a while,” said Gonzaga head coach Mark Few. “With these guys … we don’t have a whole lot of guys [from Washington]. We’ll have to explain to them that this is a highly emotional game.”
Students with tickets will be camping out on Gonzaga’s campus overnight before the game, as it’s the first of three tenting games organized by the school’s Kennel Club.
The other tenting games are on Feb. 11 against BYU and Feb. 25 for Saint Mary’s.
