What Mark Few said after Gonzaga’s 74-67 loss to Saint Mary’s

“The seniors just voted on that. That didn’t have anything to do with the game, OK?”

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

It was a somber setting at McCarthey Athletic Center on Saturday night after the Gonzaga Bulldogs lost 74-67 to their biggest rivals, the Saint Mary’s Gaels, who clinched their third straight West Coast Conference championship and second straight outright title.

The Zags fell behind 11-0 in the first three minutes. It was Senior Night, and with more seniors than starting spots, Few sent out a lineup that included Nolan Hickman, Ryan Nembhard, Michael Ajayi, Ben Gregg and Few’s son, Joe. Graham Ike and Khalif Battle were subbed in when the deficit hit 8-0 and Gonzaga didn’t score until Ike’s slam dunk that made it 11-2.

Gonzaga (21-8, 12-4) tied it at 46-46 in the second half but never had a lead all night.

Here’s what Few said after Gonzaga lost to Saint Mary’s for the fourth time in five games.

Few on the starting lineup 

Gonzaga senior guard Michael Ajayi. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“The seniors just voted on that. That didn’t have anything to do with the game, OK? I mean, we fought back into it, and much like at their place, it just came down to making plays down the stretch. They obviously did a much better job. That seven-point swing was tough to overcome. It took it from one to eight. I’d probably focus more on that than what happened the first two minutes of the game.”

Few on the senior class

Gonzaga senior guard Nolan Hickman. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“It was great. It was an incredible group. I don’t have enough time to talk about them all individually. Some of them have been here quite a while and in some instances, some of them have had a huge impact in just a couple of years. You look at what Ryan’s been able to do, and the Nembhard family has been so special to our program. Ben came in as a high school kid. He’s Mr. Zag. Having Joe out there was special, too. The whole group. It was touching but then I thought we were ready to roll, and again we got off to a tough start there. We gave up three layins, I think. They're going to make every one of those."

Few on the seniors not making traditional postgame speeches

Saint Mary's guard Mikey Lewis. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“If you want to talk basketball, let’s talk basketball. I have no idea. They’re in there, they're heartbroken, I don’t think they really want to go out and talk to the crowd. To be honest with you, we didn’t even address it.”

Few on if it was an uphill battle the whole way

Saint Mary's center Mitchell Saxen and Gonzaga guard Ryan Nembhard. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“No. The second half we tied it. I mean, we were right there, one-possession game for long, long stretches of the second half. We had just a total critical, critical situation there where we gave up an and-one 3 where we missed an assignment on what we’d been doing in our zone and didn’t get back in transition and didn’t guard Barrett and that was seven points, boom boom, that changed the game right there.”

Few on being outrebounded by 12 and having seven fewer second-chance points

Saint Mary's center Mitchell Saxen. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“Look, that’s what they do. If anybody knows what Saint Mary’s does this year, they’re probably the best or second-best offensive rebounding team in college basketball. You’ve got to be ready to fight them on the glass physically. I think our guys tried but we just had some bad matchups in there, especially when they went with the two bigs there. They were just throwing our guys out of the way. We weren’t quite tough enough or big enough.”

Few on Saint Mary’s freshman Mikey Lewis’ clutch 3-pointers down the stretch

Saint Mary's guard Mikey Lewis. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“Missed assignments on our zone. We had been doing that effectively for the first 12-14 minutes of the second half. Missed one there. Last one was just ballscreen coverage. We got pulled in, the guy was going to get a dunk, We didn’t do our job on the front end of the ball screen and they made a nice pass.”

Few on how the team recovers for Tuesday night’s game at Santa Clara

Gonzaga's Emmanuel Innocenti (5), Ryan Nembhard (0), Nolan Hickman (11) and Graham Ike (13). / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

“That’s a great question. It’s a quick turnaround and obviously we have some guys who are heartbroken in there. I’ve already started addressing that. You’ve got to let it go. We’ve got an extremely quick turnaround and end with two on the road. We play a team that’s red hot. I saw the stats from the first half against the Cougs and they made 15 3’s in the first half. We need to focus on that one. We don’t need to worry about the one on Saturday. Get right and don’t dwell on this one.”

Few on losing four of the last five to the Gaels

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

“That’s been their style for quite a while. They’ve got a great kind of senior-laden lineup that’s experienced, tough. Barrett killed us tonight; Saxen was working us over early and Mikey Lewis came in and we knew it, we were supposed to be shading to him. We had a couple errors there that really stung us.”

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