Depleted Zags Beat Down Bennett-Less Gaels
By Josh Horton
Saint Mary’s traveled to the McCarthy Athletic Center to take on West Coast Conference rival Gonzaga. Usually the contests between these two teams are extremely close, but this time it was not the case.
Gonzaga took down Saint Mary’s by a score of 73-51. The Bulldogs improve to 13-2 (3-0) with the victory, Gaels now 10-4 (1-1) with the loss.
The tale of the game can be broken down to 3 statistical categories: rebounding, three-point shooting and assists.
The Zags outrebounded the Gaels 38-22. Gonzaga’s ability to control the boards dictated the whole tempo of the game.
Saint Mary’s shot 12 three-pointers in this matchup, but only made 1 of them. Jordan Guisti’s three-pointer with 3:05 remaining in the second half was the Gaels only three-point basket of the night. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Gonzaga hit 9 of the 19 threes it attempted.
The Gaels only tallied one assist in the matchup, which came very late in the second half. In general, the Saint Mary’s offense was extremely stagnant today.
Four Gonzaga Bulldog players finished in double-figures. Przemek Karnowski and Kevin Pangos led the Zags with 15 apiece. Angel Nunez followed with 13 and Kyle Dranginis chipped in 12 as well. Karnowski led the Bulldogs with 9 rebounds. Pangos and Nunez contributed 8 apiece as well. Kyle Dranginis and Kevin Pangos led the Bulldogs with 4 assists each.
Saint Mary’s only double-digit scorer was Beau Levesque, who scored all of his 12 points in the first 16 minutes of the game. James Walker III, Brad Waldow and Levesque led the Gaels with 3 rebounds apiece.
Keys to the Game
Gonzaga
√ Defend the 3: The Gaels only shot 8.9% (1-12) from beyond the arc.
Saint Mary’s
χ Shut Down Pangos: Pangos had 15 points, 4 assists and 8 rebounds on the night. He was not made into a non-factor in this game.
Matchup of the Game
Waldow versus Karnowski: Adv. – Karnowski. Przemek Karnowski played arguably his best game in his Gonzaga career against the Saint Mary’s center. Karnowsk scored 15 points (5-7 shooting) and grabbed 9 rebounds in the victory. Karnowski was dominant in the defense paint and swatted 7 of the Gaels shots, his season high. He was even 5-6 from the free throw line.
Oppositely, Waldow had a rough game in the Kennel. He scored only 5 points on 1 of 8 shooting and only grabbed 3 rebounds. He looked flustered the entire game.
Karnowski did a fantastic job defending Waldow, holding his ground and not letting Waldow slip by him or holding his hands up so he could not shoot over him.
The Bottom Line
Despite not having Gary Bell Jr. and getting only limited minutes from a banged up Samuel Dower Jr., the Bulldogs rolled past Saint Mary’s with relative ease. Gonzaga assumed control of the game in the first half and never let the Gaels crawl back in.
Angel Nunez and Gerard Coleman were head coach Mark Few’s go-to subs in this game, and often came into the game at the same time, and played well together.
Saint Mary’s simply came out in this game flat. The panic button should certainly not be pressed on the Gaels, considering this is their first WCC loss in a very young season to a very good team.