Dan Dickau analyzes Gonzaga's 82-73 road win over last-place Pacific.
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00:00 Dan Dick out here for Gonzaga Nation.
00:05 Well, Gonzaga goes on the road after a hard-fought win on Thursday against San Francisco.
00:12 They go out on the road, play against the bottom dweller in the WCC, the Pacific Tigers,
00:21 and Pacific gave them everything they could handle in the first half.
00:25 Three at the end of the first half, at the buzzer by Odom, put Pacific up one at halftime.
00:34 Gonzaga kind of put their will early on in that second half and really established Graham
00:40 E.K. on the interior to stretch it out to a six to eight point lead early in that first
00:46 half.
00:47 Pacific tried to battle back, but in the end, some big plays I thought were made by Nolan
00:52 Hickman, there was a push in transition where it looked like it was maybe a three on one
00:56 opportunity.
00:57 He ended up hitting a transition three where when you see him make shots like that and
01:03 you see plays like that, what I see as a former point guard who likes to shoot is confidence
01:09 growing, confidence building.
01:11 And I think that's important.
01:12 So you know whether you're playing St. Mary's and you're in a dogfight for the league title
01:19 or you're playing one of those teams that's kind of continuing to battle to be in that
01:24 conversation to be an at large bid like a San Francisco, like Santa Clara, you're always
01:32 going to give Gonzaga's best shot.
01:33 But then you look at the teams at the bottom, they can make their season by beating Gonzaga
01:39 at home.
01:40 It's a storm the court type of game.
01:41 It's a storm the court type of atmosphere.
01:44 And so, you know, Gonzaga has done an amazing job of just kind of handling business over
01:49 the years.
01:50 And that's kind of really what I saw in the second half.
01:52 The energy did not look phenomenal in that first half.
01:58 I thought the second half, the attention to detail, getting Graham E.K. the ball and then
02:02 Graham E.K. just having patience, reading if a double team was coming, if not go to
02:08 work.
02:09 And then if there was a double team, you know, maybe kick it out or pass fake and then go
02:13 to work.
02:14 I thought that was really good.
02:15 I mean, when you look at it, E.K. finished with 20 points, eight of 11 from the field.
02:21 You know, Nolan Hickman, who I mentioned with that transition three, ended up with 19.
02:25 So I believe that might have been a season high for Nolan Hickman.
02:29 Ben Gregg, I thought was tremendous again.
02:32 I think it's been great having him in the starting lineup because he does provide energy.
02:38 He does the little things.
02:40 You know, he was great again, 13 points, eight rebounds.
02:43 His activity was awesome.
02:45 Anton Watson had 12, even though he battled foul trouble.
02:48 Ryan Emhart had 12 points, only one assist, though, which was a little bit of a shock,
02:54 a little bit of surprise.
02:56 Three turnovers, which is something that over the last two, three games, he hasn't really
03:00 struggled with, but, you know, did not quite run the show in the way that he has in recent
03:07 games.
03:08 Also fouled out, which obviously it was the last couple of minutes of the game he fouled
03:12 out kind of seemingly when the game was in hand.
03:16 But something to keep an eye on that the turn assist to turnovers were a bit of a concern
03:22 in this past game.
03:23 Brayden Huff, a little bit quiet.
03:25 You know, the freshman ups and downs continue for both him as well as Dusty Stromer, who
03:31 was scoreless, including 0 of 3.
03:34 All three shots were from the three point line.
03:36 You know, when you look at the big picture stuff, Gonzaga did not shoot it great from
03:40 the three point line again, 8 of 22.
03:43 They were much better in that second half shooting it, I thought, outside of a Stromer
03:47 airball from straight away.
03:49 They got good looks and they shot it with much more confidence.
03:52 They did a nice job on the glass.
03:54 They beat Pacific on the glass by plus 14.
03:58 So that was obviously a point of emphasis, I'm sure, especially after knowing Pacific
04:04 lost the battle of the glass to St. Mary's earlier in the week.
04:09 I think it was by 27.
04:10 That is an unbelievable number.
04:12 But you know, Gonzaga 53 percent from the field.
04:16 I would have liked to have seen them drive down Pacific's field goal percentage a little
04:22 bit more themselves.
04:23 Pacific shot it right around 47, 48 percent.
04:28 And that's, again, you're playing a team who's coming off of a historically bad performance.
04:34 And that was Pacific where they shot 20 percent from the field where they only scored 28 points
04:39 in the game.
04:40 And so you knew they were going to shoot it much better, both because you can't do that
04:43 two games in a row.
04:44 Plus, you're also at home.
04:46 So I've got to give Gonzaga the benefit of the doubt a little bit there.
04:49 But you know, big week coming up for Gonzaga.
04:54 You know, you look at everything that's going on in the world of college basketball, topsy
05:00 turviness, teams losing, you know, dogfights for league title races are upon us now because
05:08 we're coming to the end of of January.
05:11 You look at Gonzaga's schedule this week.
05:14 They play LMU early in the week on Tuesday, I believe it is at home.
05:22 Let's see the 30th.
05:23 Yeah, Tuesday.
05:24 They play 30th on Tuesday and then they play St. Mary's at home on Saturday.
05:29 So pretty big week coming up for Gonzaga.
05:32 LMU gave St. Mary's a battle tonight, only losing by five.
05:36 So all in all, wasn't the best, prettiest game.
05:40 But you go on the road and you get the job done.
05:44 And so right now, you got to turn the page and look forward to this upcoming week.
05:49 So for Gonzaga Nation, thanks for listening.
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