Chet Holmgren is close to sharing the Gonzaga marquee signage with All-American forward Drew Timme.
Holmgren is looking for his fourth 20-point outing in five games Saturday night when the second-ranked Bulldogs face BYU in West Coast Conference play in Provo, Utah.
The freshman scored a career-high 23 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and four blocked shots Thursday night as Gonzaga (18-2, 7-0 WCC) routed host San Diego 92-62 for its 11th consecutive victory.
Over the past four games, Holmgren is averaging 19.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 3.0 blocked shots, and consider that he was sort of a complementary contributor when these teams met last month.
This BYU team (17-7, 5-4), which is trying to avoid its first four-game losing streak since December of 2013, was drubbed 110-84 in Spokane, Wash., on Jan. 13, when Timme poured in 30 points, Andrew Nembhard tallied 22, and Julian Strawther 20. Holmgren scored just 12 in that one.
The 7-foot Holmgren is in the running to be selected No. 1 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft and a 98-second sequence in Thursday’s game displayed his potential.
Against San Diego, Holmgren scored all the Gonzaga points during an 11-1 second-half run that increased the Bulldogs’ lead to 25.
He started off with two 3-pointers in a 32-second span and then blocked a shot by San Diego’s Terrell Brown, collected the rebound and drove the length of the court for a layup.
On Gonzaga’s next possession, Holmgren swished another trey to finish the splurge.
“I feel like it kind of comes to you in different situations reading the game,” Holmgren said. “They were going zone, so their big guy was getting back to the paint.
“I knew the trail would be there if we were pushing hard in transition. They weren’t able to set up the zone, so I was just trailing hard looking for those shots.”
Holmgren is a stellar 46.8 percent shooter from 3-point range (29 of 62) so Bulldogs coach Mark Few never has a problem with his big man being stationed near the 3-point line. Especially when a run like that occurs.
“That’s kind of Chet in a nutshell,” Few said. “He can do those things, then there will be other times when you don’t really notice him all that much. But he’s always a presence around the rim on defense.”
For the season, Holmgren is averaging 14.4 points with 8.9 rebounds and 3.3 blocked shots.
BYU has won just one of the past 11 meetings, with that victory a 91-78 stunner over then second-ranked Zags in Provo, Utah, in February of 2020.
In Gonzaga’s 26-point route last month, Timme sank 13 of 14 shots. He leads the balanced Zags attack, averaging 17.9 points, with 6.0 rebounds.
BYU lost 73-59 at home to San Francisco on Thursday after previously falling to Santa Clara and lowly Pacific, marking the first three-game losing streak under third-year coach Mark Pope.
The Cougars trailed by as many as 21 points in the loss to the Dons.
“We’re clearly disappointed with the outcome and the game is testing us a little bit right now and we’ll find some answers,” Pope said. “It challenges you in every way and the game is testing us, it’s testing our togetherness, it’s testing our confidence and the thing is there is going to be a ton of emotion and you can’t hide from it, you’ve got to embrace it and overcome it.”
Standout guard Alex Barcello scored 25 points against San Francisco for his eighth 20-point outing of the season. He averages a team-best 17.3 points and has made 64 3-pointers.
Barcello was 4 of 6 from 3-point range and scored 19 points in last month’s loss to Gonzaga.
–Field Level Media
