Tyon Grant-Foster and Graham Ike didn’t start for seventh-ranked Gonzaga on Friday, but they were happy to play the role of finisher in a tense 80-72 overtime victory over Seattle U at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Ike scored eight consecutive points down the stretch to help Gonzaga erase a 13-point deficit in the second half and Grant-Foster came up with key plays on both ends in the final moments of regulation and overtime to help the Zags seal a victory that looked unlikely for long stretches.
After Ike’s scoring flurry and a pair of Braeden Smith free throws helped Gonzaga tie the score late, Grant-Foster came up with a key block on Seattle U’s Brayden Maldonado with less than two seconds remaining. Maldonado, this time face-guarded by Jalen Warley, misfired on another three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game to an extra period.
Grant-Foster, who finished with 19 points and a career-high five blocks. continued to deliver in overtime, scoring eight of the team’s 15 points without missing a shot to help the Zags pull away. Ike, who totaled 24 points and 10 rebounds, added four more points during the extra period.
GU was buoyed much of the way by junior forward Braden Huff, who had his second-highest scoring game of the season, totaling 28 points on 11 of 14 shooting with six rebounds.
Huff, Ike and Tyon Grant-Foster accounted for all 29 of Gonzaga’s points in the first half and were the only Zags to score until Smith connected on a three-pointer nearly four minutes into the second half.
Huff scored the first nine points for Gonzaga and 13 of the team’s 29 in the first half. The junior forward converted on three field goals inside the first two minutes, including a three-pointer, to help establish a 7-0 lead.
Former GU forward Junseok Yeo buried a three-pointer to put Seattle U in the scoring column and Huff responded with a close-range shot at the other end to make it 9-3. That’s when things turned for the Zags.
Spurred by a 9-0 run, the Redhawks took their first lead at the 15-minute, 36-second mark, eventually went up by 11 points and took a 33-24 lead into the halftime break. It was just the second time all season the Zags have faced a double-digit deficit (Michigan) and matched their lowest point total in the first half of a game all season, tying the 29 points GU scored against the Wolverines at the Players Era Festival.
Yeo scored 10 points but finished 3 of 11 shooting in his return to Gonzaga. Maldonado led the Redhawks with 17 points on 6 of 16 shooting and 3 of 10 from the three-point line.
The Zags (15-1, 3-0) face another short turnaround and return to the court Sunday for their first and only regular-season meeting with Loyola Marymount (10-5, 1-1).