Gonzaga rewind: 'Forceful' Graham Ike rebounds from San Diego incident, delivers double-double against Seattle

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Jan. 3—If it felt strange watching No. 7 Gonzaga play an overtime game at McCarthey Athletic Center Friday night against Seattle U, that's probably because it's happened just two other times since the venue opened in 2004.

A come-from-behind victory against the Redhawks improved Gonzaga to 295-20 all-time at McCarthey Athletic Center and 3-0 in overtime games played at the Kennel.

In total, the Zags have played 38 overtime games in 27 seasons under Mark Few, but they didn't have an overtime win at the Kennel until the 2006 West Coast Conference Tournament, when Adam Morrison scored 26 points to lead Gonzaga past San Diego, 96-92, in the semifinals.

Eleven years elapsed before Gonzaga's next OT game at home — an 89-83 victory that saw Few's team not only overcome a 12-point deficit, but overcome the 28 points scored by future Zag guard Geno Crandall.

The Zags were in a slightly deeper hole on Friday against WCC newcomer Seattle U, trailing by as many as 13 points in the second half before storming back to force overtime and prevail in the extra period.

Graham Ike was central to the comeback and the senior forward leads our day-after rewind.

A new day

It's already been an eventful week for Ike and the Zags still have one game remaining, on Sunday against Loyola Marymount.

Ike was on Gonzaga's bench to start Friday's contest after the senior picked up a technical three days earlier at San Diego. The infraction stemmed from run-ins with Toreros forward Vuk Boskovic, who baited the Gonzaga player into an offensive charge late in the second half, prompting a bench outburst from Ike moments later.

Ike subbed in less than three minutes into Friday's game, but he missed consecutive shots before scoring his first points from the free throw line. Ike had nine points at halftime, but his most important contributions came in the second half, when the forward reeled off eight straight points to help the Zags close the game against the Redhawks down the stretch.

Gonzaga was inconsistent from the free throw line much of the game, but Ike delivered there on numerous occasions, making four in overtime to help the Zags protect a two-possession lead.

"I thought it was great," Few said. "He had a great (game), especially in the second half I thought he was really forceful."

Ike is now tied for fourth in the nation with nine double-doubles, scoring 24 points with 10 rebounds on Friday. He finished 8 of 15 from the field and 8 of 11 from the free throw line.

Ike spoke about navigating an emotional week and responding from Tuesday's incident to help the Zags claw back against Seattle.

"Just keep sawing wood, stay with the team, stay connected," Ike said. "The sun will rise, you know what I'm saying? It's nothing crazy, just get back to playing good basketball. That's what we did tonight. We fought through some great adversity. I'm really proud of the group for how we pushed through and came together especially those last five minutes, man. It was huge."

Re'Jun'ion

Former Gonzaga forward Junseok Yeo made a few stops at the Kennel before joining Seattle U teammates for pregame warm-ups. After emerging from the visitor's locker room, Yeo hugged a Gonzaga team photographer near the baseline before finding former teammates Steele Venters and Joaquim ArauzMoore on the court. Yeo embraced both before trotting to the other end of the court to join the group of current teammates already warming up.

In his return to Spokane, the senior forward nearly spoiled Gonzaga's eight-game win streak, scoring 10 points in 26 minutes to go with three rebounds, two assists, four turnovers and one steal. Ultimately, the Zags spoiled Yeo's reunion by handing the Redhawks their second WCC loss.

Former Gonzaga teammates were happy to see Yeo both before and after Friday's game, but were less than pleased to see the South Korea native make multiple 3-pointers during a four-minute stretch early in the second half, helping the Redhawks maintain a double-digit lead.

One of those came on a broken play with about 14 minutes remaining in the half. Ike poked the ball away from Yeo, who recovered it and launched a 3-pointer from five feet behind the arc at the end of the shot clock. The ball dropped through the net to extend Seattle's lead back out to 10 points.

"It was great to see Jun, man," Ike said. "Glad he's on the court, happy, playing good basketball. The 3 had me a little upset, I can't lie. He said his prayers and they hit, I will say that. But good on him. He's a great player, love to see him out there. Just wish the best for him."

Braden Huff, who roomed with Yeo during the 2022-23 season while both were redshirting at Gonzaga, shared most of the same sentiments.

"Jun, that's my guy," Huff said. "Like Graham said, in the moment when he hit that 3, it wasn't very cool of him but yeah, super happy for him. He was my roommate freshman year and we kind of went through our redshirt year together, so to be able to see him on the court, it's just really cool."

Board battling

Many were stunned to see Seattle U's 37-29 halftime lead on Friday. Equally surprising may have been the Redhawks' advantage in the rebounding column at that juncture.

Seattle U entered Friday's game with a top-40 defense and with one of the top scoring guards in the WCC, senior Brayden Maldonado, but the Redhawks didn't project as a quality rebounding team, ranking No. 298 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and 221 in rebound margin.

Conversely, Gonzaga's been one the NCAA's best teams on the boards, ranking No. 39 in offensive rebounding percentage and No. 14 in rebound margin.

At halftime, however, Seattle U led 22-17 in total rebounds and 9-3 in offensive rebounds, scoring eight second-chance points to Gonzaga's one.

"We don't like to give up any offensive rebounds," Few said. "That certainly wasn't the plan and they came in with a great plan and they're a good team. You could see that on film. ... They've got some nice offensive rebounders, they've got some great rim protection and I think early on that kind of stifled us.

"They were covering down on the post really, really hard. We didn't handle that very well, but eventually we kind of settled in and were able to have some success."

At the end of regulation, Seattle still had the edge in total rebounding (41-32) and offensive rebounding (15-6), but Gonzaga controlled both categories in overtime. The Zags had eight boards during the extra period and grabbed rebounds on the only two shots they missed. The Redhawks, meanwhile, failed to clean up any of their six misses and didn't have a single rebound in OT.

"I would just say we didn't rebound the ball the way we needed," Tyon Grant-Foster said of Gonzaga's efforts in regulation. "I wouldn't say we weren't guarding because we were making them miss, but we have to finish possessions. If we don't finish possessions and they get the board, then what did we just play great defense like that for? So I would just say we've really got to lock in tomorrow on the scout and really just take pride in rebounding the ball next game."

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