Petrusev's injury further depletes GU roster
STEADY AS SHE GOES
Killian Tillie couldn’t understand all that non-stop screaming.
After all, he was only hustling end to end, putting up some shots, dishing to teammates for scores.
Just a bit of fun in the Kennel.
BYU guard TJ Haws, on the other hand, knew exactly why Tillie’s ears were ringing.
“We got punched in the mouth,” Haws said.
Oh, yeah …
That.
Tillie and his Gonzaga mates finally exploded — hitting nearly 75 percent after halftime — and wound up pummeling BYU 92-69 Saturday night.
“We were making a lot of shots,” Tillie said, like a man regaining his memory after a bout of amnesia. “We were finding the right guys and then not missing the good looks.”
That barrage of buckets against BYU was simply a continuation of some smokin’ play, with the Zags coming off a 104-54 demolition of Santa Clara just two days earlier.
Coach Mark Few noticed something else.
“For us to hold (BYU), in a high-paced game, to 69 points is a very good statement by our defense,” Few said.
“That’s an excellent offensive team that runs a variety of stuff at you.”
YES, BUT …
The Cougars played without 6-foot-9 post bruiser Yoeli Childs, who is sitting for an undetermined amount of time with an injured finger on his left (non-shooting) hand.
Childs, who was suspended for nine games at the start of the season, has played just seven times, averaging 20.9 points and 10 rebounds so far.
BYU is 14-6 overall and 3-2 in the West Coast Conference, and considered (along with Saint Mary’s) one of the Zags’ conference challengers.
This is all relevant because Childs will stop on his way to the NBA and, assuming health is no longer an issue, contribute his talents to the Zags-BYU rematch on Feb. 22 in Provo — and potentially a third game in the WCC postseason tourney.
In fact, Childs acted quite a bit like he would play on Saturday. He warmed up with the rest of the active BYU squad, but then took a seat for the festivities that mattered.
“I knew it was a fake,” Tillie said with a laugh. “I’ve done it myself.”
More seriously on the injury front, however, was a bad knock on the ankle suffered by Zags post (and leading scorer) Filip Petrusev.
The 6-11 Serbian landed awkwardly while trying to block a shot with just under 16 minutes remaining and Gonzaga up by seven points.
He was helped from the court straight to the locker room, and Few said after the game that the injury looked like a sprain — but he needed more medical advice.
MEANWHILE, Corey Kispert — who is not a doctor, and doesn’t even play one on TV — took time out from discussing his own 19-point evening’s work to assess Petrusev’s injury for the assembled media.
Kispert reported that Petrusev had been examined in the locker room, that the problem was, indeed, a sprained right ankle, and that the injury was not serious.
Take Dr. Kispert at his word.
Or go hunt for a second opinion.
If the sprain is not too bad and Petrusev can return to the wars before too long, Gonzaga gets a kind break from the schedule,
The Zags have just a single game this week — Saturday night in the Kennel against Pacific — before leaving on their annual Santa Clara-San Francisco trip at the back end of the following week.
One more item to consider while considering Petrusev’s injury …
The Zags outscored BYU by 16 points after losing their post man.
“They just turned it up another gear,” said BYU coach Mark Pope. “If you let a team like that get going downhill, it will only get worse.”
In the past few weeks, Pope’s warning has been deadly correct.
Even with Petrusev missing almost half the game and held to just five points (more than 12 beneath his average), freshman backup Drew Timme popped in 11 points and — stop me if you’ve heard this before — all the other starters wound up in double figures.
EVEN AS Petrusev may have to sit a spell and all-purpose freshman Anton Watson is preparing for surgery on his annoying left shoulder, both Tillie and grad transfer Admon Gilder look friskier by the day as they battle back from knee issues.
Gilder was noticeably quicker against Santa Clara and BYU (18 and 14 points), than he was earlier in the season, and Tillie looks fresher than he has in about two years.
Meanwhile, sophomore guard Joe Ayayi just keeps rolling along (19 and 14), and the Zags become even more difficult to double-team inside with everyone capable of knocking down 3-balls fairly consistently (17 of 42 over the two games).
Those are nice numbers, but nitpickers can say — with some truth — that this is routine stuff against the WCC. Matter of fact, they were racked up as the Zags set a conference record for in-house victories (33).
On the other hand Gonzaga has failed to score from the free-throw line with any day-in, day-out pattern so far, hovering just above a pretty poor 65 percent most of the season.
IN THAT area, the Zags truly do seem to be finding the range.
They hit 47 of 57 (83 percent) for the week, against a target that literally is not going to move.
Those foul shots pulled the season average up to 67.6 percent — nothing spectacular, but much more in the area where the Zags cannot simply be fouled at will.
There’s a good possibility that some of these items are linked, as well.
Tillie and Gilder are good shooters from the stripe, and the more good health they enjoy, the more you’ll see them attack the basket and get fouled.
Those two, along with Ayayi and Kispert, have managed to stay above 73 percent all year.
One good thing leads …
Etc., etc.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.
Steve’s various tales from several decades in sports — “Moments, Memories and Madness” — run on Sundays.