Feb. 15, 2003

Box Score

Guard Blake Stepp scored 27 points and forward Ronny Turiaf scored 24 and pulled 13 rebounds as first place Gonzaga (19-6, 10-1 WCC) used a late run to defeat USF 82-71 in Spokane Saturday night. Gonzaga's win snapped a four game USF winning streak.

USF (11-12, 6-4 WCC), paced by Darrell Tucker's 26 points, led for much of the second half and trailed just 64-62 with just 4:56 remaining. But Gonzaga went on a 12-0 run that was capped by Stepp's three-pointer with 1:51 remaining to take control of the game. Seven of the points in the run were free-throws by Gonzaga who had a huge edge at the free-throw line.

USF could not keep up with either Gonzaga's rebounding (a 38-24 advantage) or its free-throw shooting (the Zags knocked down 27 free-throws to just 8 for USF) as Gonzaga won its 21st straight home WCC win.

The Dons also got 16 points from John Cox and 11 from Shamell Stallworth.

"We had some fundamental breakdowns over a two-minute span that cost us the game," said Dons' head coach Phil Mathews, whose Dons entered the game having won three of its last four road games. "Gonzaga made some big plays down the stretch, a lot of them by Stepp and pulled out the contest."

The key play of the game came when Kyle Bankhead stole a Shamell Stallworth pass and fed Stepp for a layup to give Gonzaga a six-point lead.

Tucker again was a load for USF with 26 points in the game, including five three-pointers for the second straight contest.

Early in the first half Tucker, moved into fourth place on the USF all-time career scoring list passing both Gerald Walker (1,665) and Ollie Johnson (1,668), and now trails just Winford Boynes (1,702), Quintin Dailey (1,847) and Bill Cartwright (2,116). Tuckler now has 1,689 points in his career.

The Dons went into halftime tied at 31-all after neither team could pull away from theor opponent. USF opened up hitting its first four shots from the field ande took an early 10-6 lead before Gonzaga scored eight straight to take the lead. USF outshot Gonzaga 46.2 percent to 41.7%, but Gonzaga attempted 11 free-throws to two for the Dons.

USF closes out its home season Friday and Saturday hosting Santa Clara Friday and San Diego Saturday at Memorial Gym, the final home game for seniors Darrell Tucker, Shamell Stallworth and Scepter Brownlee.

USF has not won in Spokane since taking a 67-64 decision over Gonzaga in 1989. Of course, Gonzaga does not often lose at home, bringing a 20-game WCC winning streak into the contest.