Gonzaga came into Wednesday night at 22-1, with the only loss of the season being to Michigan early on. They left the night with a second loss, as Gonzaga was upset by Portland, despite being 22.5-point favorites. Portland built an early lead and held on to pull off the upset.
After the game, head coach Mark Few had a blunt assessment of his team's performance and the play of Portland, according to Cole Forsman of OnSI.
“They were getting better shots on the offensive end and we couldn't find a way to stop them. We knew coming in Foxwell was a special player. Their posts were posting us hard, and they were kicking our rear end on the rebound. They beat us in all facets,” Few said of his rough defense and inability to stop the Pilots.
Joel Foxwell tied a season high with 27 points, while shooting 11 of 18 from the field and three of eight from three. He was also a major player outside of scoring, adding four rebounds and eight assists in the game, as Portland broke a three-game losing streak.
“We give up almost 60% from the field, and it's [effort, missing coverages, executional errors]. They just outplayed us, out-executed us, outshot us. When they got open shots, they made them and we didn't,” the veteran coach continued.
Portland shot 59 percent from the field, as opposed to the 40 percent from Gonzaga. Portland has shot just 45.9 percent from the field this year. Further, they average just 6.3 made three-point attempts per game, while shooting 30.6 percent from three this year. They hit seven threes against Gonzaga, and shot 44 percent.
“I think when you have a program like ours and the kind of season like ours, yeah. You always feel like you got to respond, but then you have to respond; you can't be talking about it. Just bear down and get stops on defense, basically. We pride ourselves on getting three stops in a row, and we didn't have that one time tonight,” added Few about the inability to make a comeback.
Portland led over 90 percent of the game, and at one point built a 15-point lead. The largest lead for Gonzaga was just two points, and that was with 6:55 left in the first half. Portland retook the lead just two minutes later and never gave it back.
Gonzaga, 22-2, should still be slated for a top seed in the NCAA tournament. They look to rebound as they hit the court on Saturday, visiting Oregon State.
