Key matchup: Former WAC foes Tyon Grant-Foster, Maleek Arington set to meet again

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Jan. 1—Tyon Grant-Foster and Seattle U are both new to the West Coast Conference, but they're hardly new to each other.

The first-year Gonzaga wing may be happy to see the Redhawks on Friday at McCarthey Athletic Center (6 p.m., KHQ/ESPN+), but they won't be as thrilled to see him after Grant-Foster's teams at Grand Canyon racked up a 4-1 record against Seattle U the last two seasons and knocked them out of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament two years ago.

In the key matchup, we often like to highlight a top scorer from the opposing team and analyze how the Zags might choose to guard them. We made an exception this time, in part because of Grant-Foster's history with Seattle U, but also because of the senior's impact during No. 7 Gonzaga's recent road sweep of Pepperdine and San Diego.

Three months ago at WCC Media Day, Seattle U guards Brayden Maldonado and Maleek Arington were asked about the prospect of matching up with Grant-Foster again, provided he'd be eligible to suit up for Gonzaga.

The GU player's preliminary injunction hearing was originally set to coincide with the Oct. 23 Media Day event, but was rescheduled for the following week. A Spokane County Judge ruled in favor of Grant-Foster, guaranteeing Seattle U and 10 other WCC teams would have to plan for the veteran wing when they prepared respective scouting reports for Gonzaga.

It isn't something the Redhawks haven't done before, not that it makes the task any easier.

"He's a great player," Maldonado said. "Going against a guy like that who's had a lot of success in college, I mean he's been just about everywhere at every level in college as well, he's been super successful. But that's Maleek's matchup. When we were at GCU last year and when he came here, that was Maleek's matchup. I thought he did a great job on him."

Creating an obvious follow-up question for Arington: how did the 6-foot-3 guard handle assignments with the 6-foot-7 Grant-Foster?

"He's definitely very skilled, just knowing what he wants to get to, knowing what his weaknesses are," said Arington, an All-WAC Defensive Team selection in 2024-25. "You've got to go in with the mindset of just making it a hard night. Skilled players like that, they're going to hit tough shots, they're going to make things that you're like, I was there but it just went in.

"Just having a positive mindset of sticking to what our game plan is and what my personal plan is, is just huge in guarding a guy like that."

Grant-Foster has made plenty of tough and easy shots against Seattle. The 2023-24 WAC Player of the Year missed a road game with the Redhawks last season due to injury, but he's averaged 23 points and five rebounds in four other career matchups with Seattle.

Seattle got all it could handle from Grant-Foster during the semifinals of the 2024 WAC Tournament. The wing scored 28 points, making 9 of 18 from the field, 3 of 7 from the 3-point line and 7 of 12 from the free throw line in an 80-72 victory. A day later, Grant-Foster was named WAC Tournament MVP after leading GCU to a victory in the championship game against UT-Arlington.

"Super athletic, very skilled, big guy and it's always fun playing against guys like that who have that NBA type of potential and you always want to see what you got against them, what they've got against you," Maldonado said.

Grant-Foster's gone through ups and downs with Gonzaga this season, but the Redhawks are catching him on the heels of consecutive 18-point games against Pepperdine and San Diego. The wing tied his career-high with four blocks against the Waves and made all three of his 3-point attempts on the road trip.

While it isn't clear if a move back into GU's starting lineup will happen for Grant-Foster on Friday, or any point during WCC play, the Redhawks should see plenty of him in the first of two regular-season matchups between the schools. Grant-Foster is Gonzaga's third-leading scorer (11.7 points per game) and ranks fourth in minutes (20.3) despite starting in just five games.

Arington, who heads Seattle U's potent defense, should get the assignment again. Although he ranks 10th on the team in scoring, he's one of only two players in the WCC averaging more than two steals per game, along with San Diego's Ty-Laur Johnson, who nearly helped the Toreros spring an upset of the Zags earlier this week.

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