Gonzaga holds off San Francisco in furious West Coast Conference finish

SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Few had to think for a moment back to when his Gonzaga group last got pushed like this.

That’s because it’s been almost two months.

Corey Kispert’s three-point play with 1:33 left put his team ahead for good, then he knocked down a jumper with 34 seconds remaining, leading No. 2 Gonzaga past San Francisco for a hard-fought 83-79 victory Saturday to extend its winning streak to 15 games.

“Obviously, we needed to work on in-game stuff. We hadn’t been in one of those maybe since, I don’t know, the Washington game was kind of close, the Arizona game became close at the end. It wasn’t close,” Few recalled of the back-to-back road games in December. “So, it’s always good to be able to work on that. It’s great to come in at halftime and be down and make adjustments and have those guys go out there and execute those adjustments and kind of turn the tables. They had us reeling there early.”

Khalil Shabaaz made a 3-pointer with six seconds left to make it a two-point game in a furious, back-and-forth finish — and that described most of the second half. Admon Gilder made two free throws with 3.6 seconds left to seal the win.

Filip Petrusev had 23 points and 11 rebounds playing in foul trouble and Drew Timme scored 19 for the Zags (23-1, 9-0 WCC), who ran their West Coast Conference regular-season winning streak to 36 games for the longest such unbeaten run in the nation for a conference.

GONZAGA (23-1, 9-0)

Ayayi 2-6 6-6 12, Woolridge 3-5 1-2 7, Gilder 4-9 3-3 11, Kispert 4-5 1-1 11, Petrusev 8-14 7-12 23, Timme 6-11 7-8 19, Arlauskas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-50 25-32 83.

SAN FRANCISCO (16-8, 5-4)

Ratinho 6-12 0-0 14, Bouyea 5-12 1-4 11, Minlend 4-14 3-4 12, Shabazz 4-11 3-4 12, Kunen 2-5 4-4 9, Jurkatamm 1-2 2-4 4, Raitanen 3-6 3-3 11, Lull 2-3 2-2 6. Totals 27-65 18-25 79.

Halftime — San Francisco, 43-35. 3-point goals — Gonzaga 4-6 (Ayayi 2-2, Kispert 2-2, Gilder 0-2), San Francisco 7-29 (Raitanen 2-5, Ratinho 2-5, Kunen 1-1, Minlend 1-5, Shabazz 1-7, Bouyea 0-6). Fouled out — Kunen, Lull. Rebounds — Gonzaga 34 (Petrusev 11), San Francisco 31 (Jurkatamm 8). Assists — Gonzaga 8 (Timme 3), San Francisco 7 (Bouyea, Jurkatamm 3). Total fouls — Gonzaga 21, San Francisco 25. A — 3,006.