What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after win vs. Long Beach State

The Bulldogs clamped down on the Beach to storm away with a 43-point win at home

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Mark Few had nothing but praise for Gonzaga's intensity on the defensive end of the floor following Wednesday night's 84-41 victory over Long Beach State.

After locking down San Diego State at the Viejas Arena on Monday, the Bulldogs (4-0) had even tighter clamps for the Beach (1-4) back home in Spokane. Through some rugged play early on, Gonzaga strung together enough scoring runs to build a sizable lead over the visitors, while its effort on the other end of the floor ultimately put the game away for good in the second half. The Zags held Long Beach State to just 17 points after halftime and17-of-54 (31.5%) from the field overall, including 2-of-20 (10%) from 3-point range, in an 84-41 blowout from the McCarthey Athletic Center.

"I think we had really, really, really good week on the defensive end, and then obviously the offense has continued to just be kind of coming along," Few said after the game. "But we had a great, great week defensively. That was two good halves there. We had a little five minute letdown there at the end of the second or into the first half. But our numbers are getting better, and the guys are playing with great effort, playing with great physicality and against this team, we played pretty clean too."

Here's more of what Gonzaga's head coach had to say after the win.

On how depth has been a luxury this season:

"I think I said at the start of the year, we got a lot of guys and they're all kind of bunched together, and so, I think so far, we've been good about them getting a good rhythm. But it's obviously really, really nice to, rest your guards and here comes Dusty Stromer, who's a very good player and I consider him a starter. And obviously Braden was able to do that a lot for us last year, but he's playing better defensively. And last year we had to sub him out a lot just because of defensive lapses or matchups, and this year we haven't had to."

On holding Long Beach State to 2-of-20 from 3-point range:

"They did a better job, I think, than we've done all year, really getting over the top of almost all of those screens and then we did a good job contesting. I don't think [Long Beach State] got a lot of really, really good looks to be honest with you. And instead we had our hands high at the end. And like I said, those two guards coming in have shot a lot of free throws, and shot free throws really, really well, and had a real knack for drawing fouls. So I thought we had some nice discipline."

On the challenges of preparing for three games in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis:

"The thing about these three games in three days, you could see just a variety of situations. At the end of games, you could see different defenses, junk defenses. You could obviously see some wide variety of how guys play offensively. So you try to just prep your team for all of those. And you might have maybe a walkthrough here and there, but you're really just playing off everything you've worked on thus far. So hopefully we can rest tomorrow and then get some stuff in before we head down."

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