Kyle Wiltjer helps Gonzaga thwart Saint Mary’s upset bid
In the 14 months between his arrival at Gonzaga and his first game for the Zags in November, Kyle Wiltjer sought to reinvent himself as a basketball player.
The skilled 6-foot-10 Kentucky transfer spent his redshirt year working to get stronger, leaner and quicker in hopes of shedding his reputation as a one-dimensional spot-up shooter and reemerging as a much more well-rounded player.
Kyle Wiltjer 2.0 was on full display late in Gonzaga’s 70-60 victory at Saint Mary’s on Saturday night when he did a little bit of everything to help the Zags complete a stirring comeback from a 17-point first-half deficit and a nine-point deficit with less than seven minutes to go.
He backed down 6-foot-7 Desmond Simmons in the post and scored the go-ahead basket over the former Washington transfer with 1:52 to go. He yanked down several big defensive rebounds in traffic. And he clinched the victory by coming from the weakside to block a Brad Waldow shot with 30 seconds to go and by sinking six free throws in the final minute.
Wiltjer posted 14 of his 16 points and eight of his 12 rebounds after halftime, enabling Gonzaga to remain unbeaten in WCC play. It was a far cry from his 45-point masterpiece in his previous game at Pacific, yet in some ways it was more impressive considering it came on the road against the WCC’s second best team in a game in which the Zags were severely challenged.
Gonzaga’s eighth straight victory over its biggest league rival knocked Saint Mary’s (20-7) out of at-large contention and kept the Zags (28-1) in position to earn a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday. They have dominated the RPI’s ninth-rated conference after proving themselves in non-league play.
They’re the only team this season to beat UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. They also boast victories over NCAA tournament contenders SMU, Georgia and St. John’s. Their only loss this season came in overtime at seventh-ranked Arizona in a game the Zags nearly won at the end of regulation.
A huge reason Gonzaga is enjoying one of its best seasons under Mark Few has been Wiltjer’s emergence as a multifaceted scoring threat. Nobody will mistake Wiltjer for an elite defender anytime soon, but he has shot 54.8 percent from the field and averaged a team-high 17.4 points per game despite only playing 26.7 minutes.
When opposing teams defend him with a smaller player, Wiltjer has shown the strength to overpower him on the low block. When opposing teams defend him with a lumbering big man, Wiltjer exploits his inability to chase him around screens or guard him all the way out to the 3-point arc. His success hasn’t just come in WCC play either as he has torched Georgia for 32 points, UCLA for 24 and Washington State for 21.
Gonzaga needed a big second half from Wiltjer because Brad Waldow was in the midst of a 19-point, 11-rebound performance for Saint Mary’s and the Zags’ other big men were enduring off nights. Przemek Karnowski finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds, but he left a lot of points on the board with missed shots inside three feet. Domantas Sabonis logged only 15 minutes and finished with a quiet four points.
Wiltjer came to the rescue at the ideal time to help the Zags overcome their largest deficit of the season. Now if they can handle San Diego and BYU at home and win the WCC tournament in Las Vegas, they’ll have a strong case to earn the program’s second No. 1 seed in three years.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
