After being ‘punked’ by Oregon State in OT loss, Gonzaga looking to flip script in second meeting with Beavers

Over the last two weeks, Gonzaga players and coaches have used a variety of words to characterize recent performances that haven’t matched up to the program’s lofty standards.

“Dead.”

“Embarrassed.”

“Super frustrating.”

Senior forward Ben Gregg pulled out another term Saturday to describe what happened the last time Gonzaga faced Oregon State, and where the Bulldogs need to improve in order to avenge a 97-89 overtime loss in Corvallis two weeks ago.

“I feel like we got punked the last time we played them,” said Gregg, an Oregon native who was recruited by Wayne Tinkle’s staff at Oregon State coming out of Clackamas High School. “I feel like I got punked personally. So yeah, it’s something I’ve got to look inside myself and figure out what I need to do and come in with a better mentality and not let that happen again.”

Gonzaga’s latest result, a 43-point rout of Portland at the Chiles Center, was a positive step at a time when Mark Few’s program couldn’t settle for anything less, but the team’s progress likely won’t be measured until the Bulldogs get through a challenging two-game West Coast Conference stretch that begins Tuesday at home against Oregon State (8 p.m., ESPN2) and resumes Saturday with a visit to first-place Saint Mary’s (8 p.m., ESPN).

Players and coaches confronted hard truths about where the Zags were after conceding 200 points in consecutive losses to Oregon State and Santa Clara and Few said the team would be starting “at ground zero” when they returned to the practice floor a few days later. Gonzaga didn’t leave much doubt in its next game, reaching the century mark with nearly three minutes to play at Portland while turning the Pilots over 15 times.

Afterward, Few was asked how much the Zags could take from a blowout win against a bottom-tier WCC team they’re expected to beat soundly.

More than one might imagine, it turns out.

“We don’t usually win like this on the road and quite frankly we were coming off two losses,” Few said. “There’s a lot to learn from this. You’re wondering what the response is going to be. We don’t lose much up there, very rarely lose two in a row. So practices were hard, times are a little tense and you don’t quite know how your team’s going to respond. It was a great response.”

As for how much will translate against a superior Oregon State team? That’s still to be determined.

Gonzaga can’t expect things to come quite as easy on Tuesday facing a Beavers team that shot 58% from the field and got to the foul line 37 times while scoring a season-high 97 points in the last meeting.

The Beavers put up those numbers in front of a sellout home crowd at Gill Coliseum – the school’s first since 2019. Inevitably, it’ll be more difficult to replicate that level of production against a Gonzaga team that’s made lineup and schematic changes to address concerns on the defensive end. Further, it could be hard for OSU to replicate those same offensive numbers on the road, where the Beavers are just 1-4 this season and averaging 71.6 points.

“We don’t lose games, especially two in a row,” Gregg said on Saturday. “Every game from here on out is going to be a Super Bowl for us, because that’s how everybody treats it when they come in and play us. That’s the same approach we have to have even if we’re playing, whoever it is. It’s going to be a different approach I think and obviously playing at home helps, too.”

Few identified defensive breakdowns at all five positions when the Zags and Beavers met two weeks ago and the box score reflected as much.

Michael Rataj, a 6-foot-9 forward who ranks second in the WCC averaging 21.7 points per game (conference games only), scored 29 against GU and is coming off a 30-point outing against Santa Clara. Nate Kingz, a 6-foot-5 guard, made a trio of 3-pointers on his way to a 20-point night. Gonzaga had trouble at times containing 6-foot point guard Damarco Minor and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, struggled with 6-foot-9 bruising center Parsa Fallah, who had 16 points.

“It’s a big, physical team,” Few said. “They stung us at a lot of positions. Their point guard played well, their big wing shot the ball really well, their bigs went at us. So they’re a handful. Tink has mixed up his defenses well, so it’s a short turnaround. We play them in a couple days, so we’ll have to get after it.”

Winning on Tuesday would push Gonzaga (15-6, 6-2) two games ahead of Oregon State (16-6, 7-3) in the WCC standings and give the Bulldogs their first victory over the Beavers since 1932. OSU’s overtime victory in Corvallis also gave the Beavers their 13th consecutive win in the series.

“Back home, need that dub,” senior forward Michael Ajayi said. “They had us back in Oregon and we can’t wait. We’ll be starting our coverages and all that tomorrow, so no days off. We’re ready for them.”