Jan. 27—After Oregon State hung 97 points on Gonzaga during an overtime victory two weeks ago at Gill Coliseum, there probably isn’t a matchup the Bulldogs can afford to ignore Tuesday evening when the teams meet again at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Five Beavers scored in double figures and four registered 15 points or more to fuel Oregon State’s offense on a night the Beavers made 58% of their shots from the field — the highest percentage yielded by Gonzaga this season and in any game since 2004.
The Zags will devote more defensive attention to the OSU players that hurt them last time around, which means a concerted effort to limit Nate Kingz, the junior guard who was responsible for 20 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks in Corvallis.
On the season Kingz is averaging 12.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game for OSU, but those numbers aren’t an accurate depiction of the player Gonzaga will see when the teams tip off at 8 p.m. (ESPN2) Tuesday at the Kennel.
Since a 19-point effort against Nebraska on Christmas Day, Kingz has averaged 14.3 points over the last 11 games and is averaging 16.4 over the last five, with 20-point games against Pacific, Gonzaga and Pepperdine, as well as a 16-point effort against second-place Santa Clara.
“He was one guy — a couple guys I was worried about in this environment and he ate it up, ate it up,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said after the Gonzaga game. “Made some big shots for us, made some good plays for us. He’s continuing to try to get better defensively and with his body and his physique, Mike (Rataj) warned him about (Khalif) Battle. I thought we did a good job on Battle overall.
“But Nate’s a guy that can shoot it, can drive it and we get him better defending, it’s going to be key. And he’s such a great kid, man. He’s another ingredient in the recipe that makes us who we are.”
The Zags are hyperaware of Kingz’s outside shooting after the Salem, Oregon, native drilled three 3-pointers against them last game. That represented one of seven games this season where the junior’s made at least three shots from behind the arc. The transfer from College of Southern Idaho hit a season-high six 3’s while scoring 22 points earlier in the season against Cal State Fullerton.
How Gonzaga handles Kingz on the defensive will likely depend on how the Bulldogs line up on Tuesday. Battle was taken out of the starting lineup in favor of Emmanuel Innocenti on Saturday at Portland.
Nolan Hickman was the primary defender on the 6-5 Kingz during the last matchup with OSU and Gonzaga may have to rely on the senior guard once again if the Beavers stick with a bigger, longer lineup that includes 6-7 Liutauras Lelevicius, 6-9 Rataj and 6-9 Parsa Fallah.
