Gaels’ center held in check by Zags
On Jan. 27, following a win over Portland, St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett spelled out the dilemma faced by teams trying to defend the Gaels.
“Are you going to give us threes,” Bennett said, “or are you going to let Jock (Landale) play one-on-one?”
No. 12 Gonzaga stated its intention early Saturday night. Every time Landale touched the ball, the Bulldogs swarmed the 6-foot-11 center with an extra defender, urging him to pass rather than drive or attempt a heavily contested shot.
On this night, the strategy worked. Landale attempted just one shot in the first half and finished with four points, his teammates could not make up the difference and Gonzaga avenged its Jan. 18 loss in Spokane by defeating No. 11 St. Mary’s 78-65 at McKeon Pavilion.
“We had a great toughness about us tonight,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. “We had a great attention to detail, because we were doing a lot of rotation and different things.”
In the teams’ first meeting, the Bulldogs rarely doubleteamed Landale, who amassed 26 points and 12 rebounds. They hounded him Saturday night, matching him up with different defenders — including Killian Tillie (6-foot-10), Johnathan Williams (6-9) and Rui Hachimura (6-8) — and sending an extra defender immediately anytime Landale received a pass.
“We wanted to give a different look with the doubles and where they were coming from, and our guys did a great job,” Few said. “But doubles is actually the easy part of it. It’s the rotating out that’s the difficult part, especially when they put four other guys out on the floor that can shoot threes.”
Landale proved a willing passer, attempting only one shot — a fast-break dunk — in the first half and finishing 2-of-4 for a season-low four points.
But whereas the Gaels had countered a similar strategy against Portland by making 12 threes, they were unable to Saturday night, finishing 5for-20 from beyond the arc.
“They doubled and for whatever reason, we didn’t adjust to it right away,” Bennett said. “If they’re going to double, you’re going to get 4-on-3 when you get it out, which we did. You’ve got to make shots. We didn’t, and they did.”
Few credited his players with sharp execution on defensive rotations and closing out on shots. One example of a switch: At times, Few assigned the versatile Hachimura to guard Gaels point guard Emmett Naar at the start of a possession, allowing Hachimura to switch naturally onto Landale if he and Naar played a two-man game.
“It’s all about the rotations,” Williams said. “You’ve just got to trust your teammates. We’ve been working hard to have each other’s backs throughout the whole entire season. And that showed tonight.”
Before the game, the Bulldogs had jogged onto the court for warm-ups as the McKeon Pavilion sound system blared Flo Rida’s “My House.” Gonzaga, though, has thrived in opponents’ gyms. With Saturday’s win, the Bulldogs have won 22 consecutive conference road games.