What Mark Few said after Gonzaga's narrow win over San Diego on Tuesday

The Zags moved to 14-1 on the year with a six point win over San Diego

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. | Photo by Myk Crawford

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs survived a sloppy, turnover-filled mess of a game against the San Diego Toreros on Tuesday night, winning 99-93 to move to 14-1 on the year.

It was the 20th straight win by Gonzaga over San Diego dating back to 2014, and perhaps the ugliest of the entire streak. The Zags let USD hang around for the first 30 or so minutes before finally going on a run to push the lead as high as 21 points...only to let USD storm all the way back and make it a five-point game in the closing seconds.

Careless turnovers and an inability to hit free throws nearly doomed Gonzaga in its final trip to Jenny Craig Pavilion, but a massive 44-27 advantage on the glass and elite performances from veteran wings Jalen Warley and Tyon Grant-Foster off the bench saved the Zags from a catastrophic loss.

Warley led Gonzaga in points (22), rebounds (14), steals (three) and blocks (one) while his five assists were second only to Braeden Smith (six). The 6'7 wing played 35 minutes with foul trouble plaguing starting bigs Graham Ike and Braden Huff, and he shot 9-14 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line.

Meanwhile, Grant-Foster had his second straight 18-point performance, this time knocking down 7-10 shots and tacking on five rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

Coach Few was understandably unhappy with Gonzaga's performance, particularly in the final few minutes when the Zags let USD go on a 13-2 run to get within two possessions in the closing seconds.

"That it's not good enough," Few said when asked what his message to the team was postgame. "The goal is to win, so I congratulated them for that. Just the way we handled that last four minutes isn't going to be good enough to A) win this league or B) advance to where we want to advance."

The other big concern for Gonzaga in this game was a familiar one for fans who watched this team last year: an emotional outburst from star forward Graham Ike.

Ike was locked in a battle with USD forward Vuk Boskovic in the first half, which ultimately led to Boskovic getting called for a technical foul. On Gonzaga's next possession, Ike grabbed an offensive rebound and lowered his shoulder right into Boskovic - getting called for his second foul and heading to the bench with less than a minute to go in the half.

The 6'9 forward then tossed his water bottle onto the floor in frustration and was assessed a technical, which was something he struggled with multiple times last season.

"It's just unacceptable," Few said. "It's not helping, it's really, really hurting the team. He's a great player but that behavior's just really hurting the team."

Ike did not start the second half for Gonzaga, ultimately returning to the floor with 14:15 remaining. He picked up his fourth foul 33 seconds later and was benched for the next seven minutes before finally returning for the Zags in the final few minutes. He finished the game with 11 points, nine rebounds, and three assists, and while he shot a perfect 5-5 from the field, he was a disastrous 1-5 from the free-throw line, which nearly cost the Zags late in the game.

Gonzaga won't have much time to wallow in this ugly win, as they head back to Spokane to host WCC newcomer Seattle University on Friday at 6:00 PM PT.