SAN FRANCISCO – As he walked off the War Memorial Gym court, University of San Francisco men's basketball center Jimbo Lull pulled his hair back and laced his fingers behind his hanging head.
Lull and the Dons led No. 2 Gonzaga for most of Saturday's game, held a double-digit lead in the first half and held a two-point lead with two minutes to go in the teams' first meeting of the year. They couldn't hold on in an 83-79 loss.
Though San Francisco will rightly receive its fair share of plaudits for grinding arguably the best team in the nation for 40 minutes, it's hard not to wonder what could have been. Redshirt sophomore Khalil Shabazz turned in another heroic performance down the stretch, one that very nearly gave the Dons their second signature win in the last week.
"This loss really hurts, just because I felt like we could have won," said senior Jordan Ratinho. "We were right there."
Shabazz, the transfer out of Central Washington, scored a career-high 32 points in last Saturday's 83-82 win over BYU, and tallied 15 points and three steals in a 69-44 road win over pesky San Diego on Thursday.
Against the Bulldogs (23-1, 9-8 in WCC), he scored 12 points in 26 minutes — one of five San Francisco players in double figures — but two of his three steals and five of his points came in the final 2:12, a stretch that saw two of the game's 10 lead changes and one of its nine ties.
Coming back from a scary fall, it looked like Shabazz could provide the spark San Francisco was missing against a stout second-half defensive effort by a Gonzaga team faced with just its second defeat of the season, and first regular-season conference loss in 36 games.
The Dons (16-8, 5-4) had used quickness and defense to build a 12-point lead midway through the first half. With forwards Josh Kunen and Lull fighting foul trouble inside, the Dons bombed from the perimeter, going 5-of-17 from beyond the arc while Gonzaga took — and missed — just one 3-pointer before halftime.
While point guard Jamaree Bouyea was held in check on offense, he and Shabazz were instrumental in a first-half effort that generated eight turnovers and three blocks, which, combined with six offensive rebounds, allowed San Francisco to take 11 more shots than the No. 2 Bulldogs and score 10 second-chance points. Gonzaga — who came into the game averaging just 10.9 turnovers per game — wound up turning the ball over 15 times.
"We thought we had a real shot at beating them," said Ratinho, who scored a team-high 14 points. "We thought we had all the momentum going."
The Bulldogs climbed to within six as the first half wound down, but a buzzer-beating baseline fadeaway by Bouyea — just his second field goal of the day — put San Francisco ahead by eight at the break. It was just the third time this season that Gonzaga had trailed at halftime.
"I thought in the first half, we executed the game plan as perfectly as you could ask, and that's why we're up by eight," head coach Todd Golden said.
The Bulldogs' defense, though, held the Dons to just 3-of-11 to start the second half, while an offense missing a hobbled Killian Tillie hit six of its first 13 shots out of the locker room. With under 12 minutes to go, Gonzaga took a 51-50 lead, its first since the game was just three minutes old.
"I thought we were just a little sloppy with the ball in the second half," Golden said. "You don't have to be perfect, but you've got to be close. Now, we were great first half, but just about just a little above average in the second half."
Over the next four minutes, the teams swapped the lead four times and were tied four more. Lull fouled out with 7:35 left and only six points to his name, but after the Dons went nearly 17 minutes without hitting a 3-pointer, Taavi Jurkataam nailed one from the corner to reclaim the lead, 68-66 with six minutes to go. It was an eerily familiar sight.
A year ago, the Dons led the then-No. 5 Bulldogs by two at War Memorial Gym with three minutes to go, but saw Gonzaga rip off a 15-2 run to stave off the upset.
On Saturday, though San Francisco took care of the ball (just four second-half turnovers and seven on the night), the Bulldogs again inched ahead. They hit four 3-pointers in the second half while holding San Francisco to just 2-of-11 from beyond the arc.
"If we go 10-for-28 [from three] here tonight, we're walking out a little happier than we are right now," Golden said.
Then, the speedy, shifty Shabazz helped halt the momentum. After swiping a loose ball from Joel Ayayi, he wheeled around in the back court and sprinted the length of the floor. He weaved through three Bulldogs defenders for a right-handed layup, but was spun in mid-air by Ayayi. As he came down, he slammed back-first into the basket stanchion. After writhing in pain, Shabazz was helped off the court, having cut the lead to 75-74. With Shabazz out, the Gonzaga lead grew back to five.
When Shabazz — nursing a dinged tailbone — returned, the crowd roared. With 4.6 seconds left, Shabazz pulled up from NBA range for his first 3-pointer of the day, cutting the lead to 81-79.
"He steps up in the big moments," Golden said. "He's great competitor. He's not going to hit every shot, but you know he's going to believe."
San Francisco fouled Admon Gilder on the in-bound play, but while the Dons have had luck recently fouling in late-and-close situations (thanks to its analytics-minded staff), Gilder hit both freebies. Shabazz fired off one more long-distance missive, but it hit off the glass as time expired.
"We led for 26 minutes today," Golden said. "For the first 30 minutes of the game, we controlled it. Credit to them. That's what makes them so good. They stepped up."
The Dons will stay at home, hosting Pacific next Thursday at 8:00 p.m. It will be part of a Thursday evening double header with the women hosting Pepperdine at 5:00 p.m. Tickets for next Thursday's game at available at
USFDons.com/mbbtix
Please mark your calendars for the Hall of Fame Dinner on February 21st at 6:30 PM in the McClaren Conference Center on USF's campus. We will honor our Dons of the Year, Kevin and Susan Hanley, as well as our inductees that include Dior Lowhorn (men's basketball, 2010), Joy Boyenga (women's basketball, 1992), and Kyle Zimmer (baseball, 2012). Tickets are available now at
usfdons.com/halloffame.
