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Gonzaga Remains Undefeated In WCC Play
Jan. 22, 2008
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -Freshman Steven Gray scored 16 points and Gonzaga beat San Francisco 72-64 on Monday night to spoil Eddie Sutton's first attempt to win the 800th game of his coaching career. Austin Daye and Matt Bouldin added 10 points each as Gonzaga (15-4, 4-0 West Coast) won its sixth game in a row. The Zags play at No. 1 Memphis on Saturday. San Francisco (5-13, 1-2 WCC) was coming off a win at Portland that was the 799th of Sutton's career. Dior Lowhorn led the Dons with 21 points. The Dons were outclassed by the Zags, the perennial WCC champions, and done in by poor second-half shooting. San Francisco trailed by eight at halftime, and the Zags pulled away in the second half until a late spurt by the Dons. Three-pointers by Bouldin and Daye capped an 8-2 run that lifted Gonzaga to a 55-41 lead. After Lowhorn's basket for the Dons, Gonzaga scored seven straight points for a 62-43 lead with 8:05 left. The Dons scored 10 straight points to close within 68-60 with 1:12 left. Lowhorn's basket cut the Gonzaga lead to 70-64 with 22 seconds left, but Gray hit two free throws for the final points. Gonzaga led 37-29 after a first half in which nine Bulldogs scored. San Francisco has not won in Spokane since 1989, losing 19 straight. Sutton is 0-3 versus the Zags, with two previous losses coming when he was at Oklahoma State. Sutton, 71, whose career has included stints at Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State, joined the Dons in late December after coach Jessie Evans took what the school has termed a leave of absence. He has a record of 799-320 in 37 seasons. The Dons lost their first four games under Sutton before the win at Portland on Saturday. Sutton has been to 26 NCAA tournaments as a coach. He led Arkansas to the Final Four in 1978 and Oklahoma State in 1995 and 2004. Sutton retired as coach at Oklahoma State in 2006 following a drunken driving accident.
Sutton has said he plans to coach only through the rest of the season. Only four coaches in Division I history have reached 800 wins, led by Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, who became the first coach to 900 on Wednesday. The others are Dean Smith at 879, Adolph Rupp at 876, and Jim Phelan at 830. Gonzaga coach Mark Few, in his ninth season, has a record of 226-56. Gonzaga is 47-2 in the McCarthey Athletic Center since it opened in 2004. |
