What Mark Few said after Gonzaga’s win at Washington State

The Gonzaga Bulldogs rebounded from a slow start, opened a 22-point halftime lead to quiet the sellout crowd at Beasley Coliseum and cruised to an 84-63 West Coast Conference victory over Washington State.

The Zags will now shift their focus to Saturday night’s huge Senior Night showdown against WCC leader Saint Mary’s on Saturday night at the Kennel. With three games left in the season, Gonzaga trails Saint Mary’s by two games and will be looking to avenge a four-point loss at Moraga on Feb. 1.

“Again, I thought we kind of got off to a slow start there; a couple turnovers, a couple missed opportunities at the rim. But the resiliency of this group, we’re starting to kind of, I feel like, getting that harder outer shell here and powered through some stuff," Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said after the win.

Gonzaga got balanced scoring against the Cougars, led by 23 points from Nolan Hickman and 17 points and 13 rebounds from Graham Ike. The Zags (21-7, 12-3 West Coast Conference, also got big contributions off the bench from Michael Ajayi (12 points) and Braden Huff 11.

Here’s what Few said after Gonzaga’s fifth straight win.

Few on the overall team effort

“Obviously there was some good energy in here. I thought these guys got us going,” said Few, who was flanked by Nolan and Ike at the postgame news conference. “Nolan had a fantastic game tonight and responded. We got him back in there after giving him a breather while they were making their run and hit a big 3 there. Dusty gave us good minutes in the first half, Huff came in and gave us great minutes in the first half, and then we got these guys back in there and really extended the lead and I thought that was the whole key.”

Few on the strong defense

“I thought for the most part, except right when they made that run, it was really, really solid. I thought we were dictating their shots. They’re an interesting team to play. You don’t face that, your guards getting posted up so aggressively, night in and night out. I thought these guys did a really good job of fighting, and they had to fight, especially Nolan and K.B. And then we got out on their 3-point shooters. They’re a dangerous 3-point shooting team and I think we stayed pretty disciplined with our coverages and drove their numbers down. It was a good defensive night.

Few on the big showdown with Saint Mary’s

“Hey, it’s February, man. When the games come around, you’ve got to go out and perform. They went out and performed. It was a nice crowd tonight. These guys have played at Madison Square Garden and last year about this time, at Rupp Arena, I mean, our core group. They know how to handle this, and even some of the smaller places like Saint Mary’s are good environments, so I think that really helped us tonight. Hey, we’ve got another big one coming up on Saturday. So, get home and get ready for that.”

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