I should’ve known that at some point this season I would be reminded about all of the annoying things that come with being a college basketball fan. I didn’t expect them all to hit at once, but here we are. First, ESPN bounced the game between channels, shifted the tipoff window without warning, and at one point the ESPN+ app forced me into the Spanish-language broadcast which was fun for like 4 minutes. In all honesty, I wasn’t initially psyched about Gonzaga’s broadcast deal with the USA Network, but after being reminded of just how annoying ESPN’s broadcast antics can be, it somehow now feels like one of the best pieces of program news this year.
Unfortunately, things didn’t improve once the game was actually on. The Zags took the floor in front of a hostile crowd in Tempe, came out flat, never found rhythm in the rotations, and had to deal with an officiating crew that turned the game into a whistle parade long before either side could gain momentum. It was everything that frustrates basketball fans packed into one evening. There were good things about this game, sure, but the whole game felt like trying to eat an ice cream sundae inside a porta-potty at Pig Out in the Park — something you love rendered nauseating by the misery of the setting.
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The Zags still left Tempe with a win 77-65 over the Sun Devils. The Bulldogs were carried by Graham Ike’s 20 points and 9 rebounds and spurred on by another quietly devastating night from Tyon Grant-Foster, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The Bulldogs secured their first meaningful road win of the season, the kind of result that will age well even if the game itself will not. Yet the performance also revealed how vulnerable this team becomes when the engine sputters, when rhythm disappears, and when the margin between control and collapse shrinks to a handful of possessions and a few lucky breaks (plus a well-timed temper tantrum from ASU coach Bobby Hurley).
First Half
Gonzaga opened the game with one of its flattest stretches of the season, stumbling through 10 minutes where jumpers missed by wide margins and Arizona State’s help-side rotations choked off anything resembling rhythm in the low post. ASU loaded the baseline early on paint touches, forcing Ike and Huff into crowded pivots and taking away the short-roll windows that normally free up driving lanes from the perimeter. ASU point guard Moe Odum (12 points and 7 assists on the night) blew up two straight low-post entries and cut off multiple drives by beating Gonzaga’s guards to their spots. The result was a choppy start that had the Zags trailing 20-19 with 9:25 left in the first and looking nothing like one of the fastest, most efficient programs in the country.
The shift came once Gonzaga tightened things up defensively and started stacking stops. After a hot shooting start, ASU went cold, going 35% from the field for the half, with very little offense created after the opening burst. Those stops fed into Gonzaga’s broader interior dominance, which showed up across the half in 22 paint points to ASU’s 12. Grant-Foster controlled the glass with 8 first-half rebounds off the bench, Ike powered through contact for 11 points and 5 boards, and the Zags flipped the rebounding margin to a decisive 25-14, including 19 defensive rebounds that wiped out nearly every ASU second-chance look.
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Even with limited perimeter volume–3-9 from deep in the first half—Gonzaga still produced 1.25 points per possession, thanks to shot selection, the rebounding edge, and clean execution once the early jitters burned off. The bench contributed 19 points to ASU’s 7, and the Zags walked into halftime up 45-32, a number that better reflected the final twelve minutes than the opening eight.
The officiating was just plain awful on both ends, and the constant whistles down the stretch took Gonzaga out of its rhythm completely, but they imposed order on a half that tried very hard to stay messy. The low-volume shooting, the constant interference from the refs, and a strong early stretch from ASU’s Santiago Trouet (10 first-half rebounds) kept things tighter than expected. Yet all the underlying numbers tilted Gonzaga’s way by the horn, and by halftime the separation partially matched the performance.
Second Half
The Zags didn’t come out of the locker room playing with much more energy than the first. The refs, however, were relentless. By just 4 minutes into the second half, both Graham Ike and Braden Huff found themselves saddled with 3 fouls apiece. Any longtime Zag fan had déjà vu flashbacks to some of the darkest tournament nights in program history, because Gonzaga’s offense tends to flatten whenever its interior anchors disappear early, and this script looked dangerously familiar.
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It didn’t get prettier from there, but the Zags clung to a lead and held the Sun Devils in check despite narrowing the lead to just 5. Every trip down the floor became a negotiation with the officials, who seemed determined to “balance” the game possession by possession. Gonzaga opened the half 2-13 from the field, stuck in an offensive freeze while Arizona State pressed, ran, and cobbled together some momentum. The only stabilizing force came from the margins, with Tyon Grant-Foster powering his way to a double-double in his first 16 minutes of action and Emmanuel Innocenti burying a corner three that finally snapped Gonzaga’s scoring drought and rebuilt a two-possession cushion.
The game’s emotional temperature spiked when ASU’s Trouet earned a technical for taunting following a baseline block on Jalen Warley, and just a few possessions later, Bobby Hurley detonated into a full volcanic episode after an obvious foul by Graham went uncalled on the other end. The officials hit him with a tech that he absolutely earned theatrically, even if he had a point. That moment flipped the crowd, re-energized the Bulldogs and nudged the game back towards Gonzaga’s favor.
But even then, nothing came easy for Gonzaga’s backcourt. Mario Saint-Supery never found his rhythm in this one (2 points and 0 assists in 7 minutes of second-half play). Huff fouled out with five minutes remaining after a productive but handcuffed night. In a half defined by stops and starts, the breakthrough shots came from Adam Miller, who confidently buried two late threes to stretch the lead back to fifteen and finally give Gonzaga some much-needed breathing room. Grant-Foster added the exclamation mark with a heads-up steal and dunk that pushed him to 14 points and 12 rebounds on the night.
But perhaps the night’s most telling moment came with 30 seconds left in regulation and a 12 point Gonzaga lead. The broadcast made a slow pan across the Gonzaga bench and found no trace of relaxation or celebration at all, just tight jaws, flat expressions, and a group that looked genuinely irritated by the whole affair. That snapshot said more than the scoreline ever could, because it showed a team fully aware that the game had slipped into a place far below its standards, even as it secured the result.
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Final Thoughts
Across two and a half hours, 45 total fouls called, and a 6-21 3pt shooting performance, Gonzaga survived an ugly ugly game against a surprisingly scrappy opponent in an extremely hostile road environment. If ever there was a game to help vault the Zags back into the top-10 conversation, this was it, despite the ugliness of the game itself. They proved they could hold composure, lean on depth, and grind out a game that offered nothing in the way of pace or momentum. Nights like this separate teams built for March from teams that collapse in December, and Gonzaga left Tempe with evidence that this roster can bend without breaking, even when circumstances and game script conspire against them.
Stuff I encourage the comments section to discuss…
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Braeden Smith had 0 points on the night but also finished with 9 assists and just 1 turnover. He played 26 minutes to Mario Saint-Supery’s 13 and was emphatically Gonzaga’s lead guard for the bulk of regulation. After two standout performances from Saint-Supery, Braeden Smith’s performance just made the point guard conversation more interesting. Well, it helped it remain interesting.
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STILL no Diagne. Huff fouled out, Ike had 3, Warley had 3, and ASU’s 7’1” Massamba Diop kept finding ways to get to the rim and grab rebounds. If that isn’t Diagne Time! I’m not sure Diagne Time will come to fruition this season outside of late-game blowouts.
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Gonzaga shot 35 free throws to ASU’s 23, a gap that shaped every possession down the stretch and created separation on a night when the margin lived in the mud; a more balanced whistle on shooting plays would have dragged this into a far tighter finish and raised real questions about whether Gonzaga would have escaped with the win at all.
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14 total turnovers and just 2 steals on the night is not the kind of Gonzaga basketball the first games of the season led us to believe we’d be seeing. The perimeter defense will need to bounce back and get back on track in a quick turnaround before Southern Utah on Monday.
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It was an ugly game. It mostly wasn’t fun to watch, at all. But a win’s a win, and the Zags are now 4-0.
The Zags face Southern Utah on Monday at the Kennel. Tipoff is at 6:00 PM, coverage provided by KHQ and ESPN+.
