Rasir Bolton saves Gonzaga in narrow victory over USF: 3 takeaways

Bolton's heroics helped Gonzaga overcome a poor first half showing on the road

Following a win to tip off conference play, No. 9 Gonzaga continued its winning ways in thrilling fashion on Thursday in a 77-75 win over conference-rival San Francisco. Rasir Bolton scored the game-winning basket on a putback with less than 10 seconds remaining.

It was the eighth straight victory for the Zags (13-3, 2-0 WCC), while the Dons (11-7, 0-3 WCC) have dropped their first three conference games with the loss.

Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s game:

A TALE OF TWO HALVES

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Leading by 10 at the half, not much had gone wrong for the Dons as they headed to the locker room after thoroughly beating the Zags, who looked lackadaisical on both ends of the floor as they were outshot, outrebounded and outhustled in the first 20 minutes of play.

Yet, despite outplaying its conference rival in nearly every department, the wind eventually ran out in the sails as the second half waged on.

After 15 first-half points from Khalil Shabazz, including four 3-pointers, the Dons struggled to get their leading scorer involved when it mattered most, as he missed five of his final six shot attempts to close out the night.

His explosive shot-making could have come up big down the stretch for the Dons, who made just one field goal in the final four minutes.

Turnovers caught up with San Francisco too, as Gonzaga scored 24 points off the extra possessions, including the steal-and-score that tied the ballgame with two minutes remaining.

This makes three straight games in which the Dons have blown a halftime lead to a WCC foe — not the greatest start to conference play for head coach Chris Gerlufsen.

DONS DOMINATE BOARDS, DRILL 3S IN THE FIRST HALF

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Dropping two straight games to open conference play certainly didn’t sit well with the Dons, who thoroughly controlled the pace of the game while winning nearly every 50-50 battle for loose balls and rebounds.

Right from the opening tip, it was apparent the lackadaisical Zags would have trouble keeping up with the physical play as they gave up 13 offensive rebounds that led to 22 second-chance points.

Clearly, there was a lack of energy when it came to crashing the glass. The Dons’ 45 rebounds were the most since Purdue grabbed 46 back in November, while the -19 margin on the boards was the worst mark of the season.

Defending the 3-point line was a problem as well. Despite San Francisco’s conference-worst 33% mark from deep on the season, Gonzaga gave up eight first-half 3-pointers. It was a different story coming out of the locker room, yet it took a while before the defense tightened up.

BOLTON BRILLIANCE

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No one came up bigger down the stretch for the Zags than Bolton, who scored 16 of his team-high 21 points in the second half including the game-winning tip-in with eight seconds left.

It had been a rough stretch shooting the ball for the 6-foot-3 guard — coming into tonight, he’d been shooting 35.4% from the field and 23.8% from deep over the previous five games.

That didn’t stop him on Thursday though, as he converted on 5-of-7 3-point attempts, two of which helped the Zags cut their deficit to three on separate occasions in crunch time.

Let’s not forget his important steal on Tyrell Roberts that led to a Nolan Hickman layup on the other end to tie the ballgame late.