Gonzaga University entered this year’s NCAA March Madness Tournament as a No. 1 seed, featuring the 13th-overall draft pick in the 2013 NBA draft, Kelly Olynyk, as well as the son of NBA Hall-of-Famer John Stockton.
The Bulldogs are an elite, Division I organization. And the Clan visited them last week.
It was the first exhibition game of the men’s basketball team’s new season, and it started off how you’d expect: Gonzaga roared out to a 15–3 lead, and held the Clan to 1-of-17 shooting to start the game. Another three-pointer from SFU’s senior guard Dillon Hamilton would bring the lead to 15–6; the nine-point differential would be the Clan’s smallest deficit of the game.
At the half, the Bulldogs had nearly doubled the SFU’s scoring output, sporting a 52–28 lead. The Clan refused to roll over though.
SFU’s David Gebru named a Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) preseason all-star, finished with 14 points to lead the Clan, and two newcomers, Justin Cole and Sango Niang, also hit double digits in points. And though the final score wasn’t close, it was closer than you may have expected, with SFU dropping the contest 103–68.
“This game was an unbelievable experience for our team,” said SFU head coach James Blake. “Our guards played tough defence and really challenged their perimeter players. They are just so big and we really struggled on the boards.”
“I wanted to play the hardest teams in our preseason schedule and we are. These games will prepare us for an unbelievably tough GNAC schedule,” he added.
His team played another one of “those games” last Saturday, against another Division I opponent, the University of Montana Grizzlies, who won the Big Sky Conference championship last year.
The game started off similarly to the game against Gonzaga: the Clan fell behind 10–0 before getting their first points. Unlike the Bulldogs, the Grizzlies defence completely stifled the Clan attack, and Montana had a commanding 46–19 lead at the half, a deficit that would only increase in a 102–49 loss.
“We came out flat against the defending Big Sky champion,” said Blake after the game. “Montana took us out of our offence early and we never got into a good flow . . .”
“Unfortunately we just ran out of steam playing against good Division I teams back-to-back.”
The good news is, the competition won’t get any tougher for SFU. There were no expectations on the Clan to win these two games, instead it was more of an opportunity to see how some of the best college basketball teams in the world operate.
The Clan are far from that recognition, but have a shot this year to bounce back and be one of the best teams in their conference. And after playing two Div. I schools, it’s only going to get easier.
