DeAndre Townsend’s disappointment didn’t come from his team’s effort against No. 14 Gonzaga on Wednesday in Spokane, Wash.
It came, instead, by the fact that a 101-70 loss might not have reflected how well Emporia State played.
“Looking at the box score or the overall score,” Townsend said, “the fans have no clue how hard and how tough we tried to play them.”
Though the final numbers might not have shown it, the Hornets — for the second consecutive exhibition game — hung with a top-15 Division-I opponent in the first half.
ESU led twice and also was close at halftime, trailing just 47-43.
“We were feeling good,” ESU senior Wes Book said. “This was our last opportunity to play against a team like this, so we were into it.”
It all turned ugly in the second half.
Gonzaga started on a 9-0 run, extending a lead that would get as large as 31.
The Hornets never came up with an answer, getting outscored 54-27 in the final 20 minutes.
“That’s how it goes,” ESU coach David Moe said. “We’re not the only team this is going to happen to. We did the best we could. We have nothing to hang our heads about.”
ESU started out well thanks to good shooting.
After falling behind 4-0, the Hornets went on a 6-0 run to take a 14-12 lead into the first media timeout.
ESU made six of its first nine shots and outrebounded Gonzaga 5-1 in the first four minutes.
“We did the same thing we did against Texas A&M,” Book said. “We kept the floor spread, moved around and found our shooters. Luckily, we were hitting our shots.”
A Book jumper made it 16-14 before Gonzaga used a 10-0 run to take the lead for good.
Still, ESU hung around, as a 3-pointer by Dustin Andrews pulled the Hornets to 47-43 at the break.
The Hornets hit 17 of 35 shots in the first half and also made 8 of their 16 3-pointers.
“We’ve learned to know that we can hang with these teams,” Townsend said. “We ain’t going to back off, and we ain’t going to back down. We’re going to keep fighting.”
ESU’s luck started to turn early in the second half.
Caleb Tegtmeier, with a substitute waiting for him at the scorer’s table, fouled out with 16:56 left in the game.
He wouldn’t be the last. The already undersized Hornets also had both Jordan Fithian and Marvin Lee foul out.
“We just ran out of gas and started running out of players,” Moe said. “The adversity of how a game goes in a place like this wore us out.”
Gonzaga also took advantage of ESU miscues, scoring 34 points off the Hornets’ 20 turnovers.
“It came down to decision-making in the second half,” Townsend said. “We made a lot more mistakes.”
Townsend and Book led ESU, scoring 17 points apiece. Book also added five assists.
Dustin Andrews was the only other Hornet to hit double figures with 10 points.
Gonzaga’s best performance came from point guard Jeremy Pargo, who had 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
Six Bulldogs in all scored in double figures, including Kansas transfer Micah Downs (14).
Gonzaga made 36 of its 63 shots (57.1 percent). The Bulldogs were even better in the second half, shooting 62.1 percent (18 of 29).
“In the first half, we didn’t allow them to string plays together,” Book said. “They got some plays strung together in the second half, and the crowd got into it.”
ESU (0-2 exhibition) will wrap up preseason play at 7 p.m. Saturday with an exhibition game against the ESU Alumni team.
Moe said he was pleased with what he saw from his team in its two games against D-I competition.
“I thought we had three really good halves,” Moe said. “We played really well.”
Gonzaga 101, Emporia State 70
Friday at Spokane, Wash.
Emporia State 43 27 — 70
No. 14 Gonzaga 47 54 — 101
Emporia State (0-2 exhibition)
Wes Book 7-12 0-0 17; DeAndre Townsend 5-11 4-6 17; Dustin Andrews 4-7 0-2 10; Marvin Lee 3-8 1-3 8; Matt Boswell 2-2 0-0 6; Caleb Tegtmeier 2-3 0-0 5; Jordan Fithian 2-5 0-0 4; Spencer Allen 1-1 0-0 2; Andrew Davison 0-7 1-2 1; Doug Moore 0-0 0-0 0; Dane Kelly 0-1 0-0 0; Alex Pyle 0-1 0-0 0; Jordan Stout 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-58 6-13 70.
Gonzaga (1-0 exhibition)
Austin Daye 6-8 5-6 17; Jeremy Pargo 7-13 2-3 16; Micah Downs 5-8 0-0 14; David Pendergraft 4-9 4-4 12; Robert Sacre 2-2 7-13 11; Abdullahi Kuso 4-5 2-4 10; Matt Bouldin 3-6 0-0 7; Larry Gurganious 2-5 2-4 6; Josh Heytvelt 1-2 2-2 4; Steven Gray 2-4 0-2 4; Ira Brown 0-0 0-0 0; Andrew Sorenson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 36-63 24-38 101.
3-point goals — ESU 12-30 (Townsend 3-8; Book 3-5; Andrews 2-4; Boswell 2-2; Lee 1-2; Tegtmeier 1-2; Kelly 0-1; Pyle 0-1; Davison 0-5). Gonzaga 5-15 (Downs 4-6; Bouldin 1-2; Pendergraft 0-1; Heytvelt 0-1; Gray 0-2; Sorenson 0-1; Pargo 0-1; Daye 0-1). Fouled out — ESU: Tegtmeier; Fithian; Lee. Gonzaga: Kuso. Rebounds — ESU 26 (Andrews 3; Fithian 3; Townsend 3; Tegtmeier 3). Gonzaga 41 (Pargo 6). Assists — ESU 15 (Book 5). Gonzaga 16 (Pargo 7). Total fouls — ESU 30, Gonzaga 18. Att — 6000.
Zagnative (anonymous) says...
Emporia State looked great, especially during the first half. The Zags have what may be, from top to bottom, their most talented and deepest team, yet in the first half, Emporia State gave them all they could handle, and they did it with style and class. We have a tradition on the Zags message board to nominate players as "GUnit of the Game," meaning the star of the game. One Zags fan nominated the Emporia State squad:
"I know the idea is to highlight a GU player, but I want to give props to Emporia State for a few reasons.
1) They are a good solid team and seem to be very classy as well. On a number of ocassions after a hard foul they would make sure our guy was OK and let them know they were sorry.
2) Reminded the Zag team that good 3-point shooting teams will be a struggle for them if they don't execute the D like they did in the second half.
3) Zags beat them and gave a nice boost to start the season on!"
November 8, 2007 at 4:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )