SPOKANE — Gonzaga got a brief glimpse of what life without Ryan Nembhard might look like midway through the first half of Saturday’s rivalry game against Washington State.
Nembhard’s teammates kept the ship afloat during Gonzaga’s longest stretch without the point guard in two seasons and coasted when he returned to the wheel, dismantling WSU’s defense much of the second half during an 88-75 victory at McCarthey Athletic Center in the first game between the Inland Northwest rivals since 2015.
After a less-than-inspiring start, it was a positive way to end things for Nembhard, who was good for zero points, three missed shots, zero assists, one turnover, two fouls and nearly a dozen aggravating moments through the opening stint Saturday.
Nembhard picked up his second foul in frustration after missing a short floater, bumping Parker Gerrits 80 feet from WSU’s basket, and went to the bench for the rest of the half — a 9-minute, 34-second stretch that probably felt like an eternity for GU fans accustomed to watching the nation’s assists leader run the show for 35-40 minutes most games.
“We’ve got a lot of great guys that could do things without me,” Nembhard said. “… Those guys were great without me, so it was nice.”
There still aren’t many players on the West Coast, let alone the country, capable of doing many of the things GU’s All-America candidate does on a consistent basis, and Nembhard reiterated that during an overpowering second half.
Nembhard took his scoring opportunities when they came and used others to get teammates involved, scoring nine second-half points and distributing five assists with only two turnovers while posting a team-high plus-16 on the second-half stat sheet.
The nation’s assists leader transitioned from point guard to QB1 on a few occasions, throwing 60-foot dimes over the top of WSU’s defense to Braden Huff, a reliable deep threat for the Zags who turned two such passes into easy baskets.
“The long pass, for sure, we work on that every single day. Got to reward those bigs when they run like that,” Nembhard said. “So I love those guys.”
Nembhard took his chances driving to the basket against WSU’s bigger front line, converting multiple scoop shots. The point guard used a nifty dribble move to create separation from Nate Calmese late in the second half, drilling a step-back 3-pointer while the Cougars guard was still trying to find his footing.
“It was just nice to make a shot,” Nembhard said. “Had to make that one, especially in front of the Kennel. It was great to have the fans back. It’s a lot different atmosphere when they’re in here than when they’re not. Best fans in the world.”
One of the senior’s only mistakes in the second half came while trying to help a teammate secure a spot on SportsCenter’s nightly Top 10 highlight reel. As Nembhard spotted Khalif Battle cutting to the basket, he tossed a towering lob , missing Battle’s fingertips by only an inch and throwing the ball out of bounds.
“He was great, he was great,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “It’s not anything we haven’t seen before. I think he was terrific. He was fresh and you could tell he was raring to go. He definitely had us playing at a pace we needed to play at, that we weren’t really playing at in the first half and that helped tremendously. That pass he threw to B-Huff was amazing.”
Nembhard preferred the view he had in the second half, but he still enjoyed watching from the bench late in the first, particularly when Gonzaga hit a flurry of 3-pointers — the Bulldogs canned four of their last five after opening 1 of 7 — to key a significant turnaround.
Battle sent the Zags into halftime with a 40-37 lead after sprinting coast to coast and flipping a high-arcing layup off the glass.
“I just told them, ‘Hey, we’re in a battle,’ ” Few said of his halftime message. “It’s a great game, both teams are competing really hard and we’re best when we’re in attack mode, and they did a great job of taking the message and I thought we really did a good job of turning defense into offense.”
The Zags, who only scored 15 points on 12 turnovers in the second half, capitalized right out of the gates, when Nembhard picked the ball away from Dane Erikstrup and fed Battle for a 3-pointer.
WSU finished the game on an 8-0 run to make the final margin look closer, but GU led by as many as 23 points with less than 6 minutes remaining and still outscored the Cougars 48-38 after halftime.
One of five double-digit scorers for Gonzaga, Graham Ike led both teams with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field. Nolan Hickman turned in a season-high 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the 3-point line, Ben Gregg had 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and both Battle and Huff had 10 points.
WSU coach David Riley acknowledged his team could’ve done a better job of taking advantage of GU’s long first-half stretch without Nembhard.
“There was a lot of opportunities I felt like we could’ve taken advantage of,” Riley said. “That’s for sure one of them. They don’t have too much of a drop-off when they’ve got guys coming out of the game. They have a ton of talent on that team and obviously we could’ve done a little more and picked on that.”
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