The last time the Gonzaga Bulldogs faced the Portland Pilots, the result was an 87-80 loss that stood out for all the wrong reasons. Gonzaga struggled to find any consistency, looked disorganized on both ends of the floor, and never fully recovered after getting punched in the mouth early. This time around, the Bulldogs get the Pilots at home, inside the Kennel, on senior night, and should be very fired up for their final home game of the season. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. PT, with local coverage on KHQ and streaming available on ESPN+.
Gonzaga worked its way back into the Associated Press Top 10 this week following a pair of wins over the San Francisco Dons and Pacific Tigers, though the jump owed as much to chaos elsewhere in the rankings as to anything the Zags did themselves. However it happened, Gonzaga now sits at No. 9, and its only conference loss remains the one it took against Portland on Feb. 5. The Bulldogs enter this rematch coming off an ugly and narrow win against Pacific and will need a far more controlled performance to settle the score against a team that already knows it can beat them.
Portland arrives at 12-17 overall and has gone 1-3 in the four games since their last meeting, with a win over the Seattle U Redhawks and losses to the San Diego Toreros, Pepperdine Waves, and then the same Seattle U team they beat a couple of weeks prior. On paper, Gonzaga holds the edge, especially at home, though the way the Bulldogs struggled against Pacific leaves real room for trouble if Portland plays anywhere near the level it reached in the first matchup.
Meet the Pilots (again…)
It remains hard to square how Gonzaga lost the first meeting. Portland played the game of its season, and it showed most clearly at the point of attack. Freshman guard Joel Foxwell torched the Zags for 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting and added eight assists. It was another entry in the long-running tradition of Gonzaga getting burned by an Australian lead guard playing the best game of his life, a storyline that usually belongs to the Saint Mary’s Gaels but showed up wearing Portland purple this time.
The loss came down to physical control and execution. Portland dominated the defensive glass 26-14, an almost unthinkable margin that kept Gonzaga from generating second chances or sustaining pressure. Offensively, the Bulldogs leaned almost entirely on Graham Ike, who finished with 24 points in 35 minutes, along with six offensive rebounds and three assists. He carried the load because there was very little help.
It was also an important game in terms of how Gonzaga began developing its defense-first identity. Despite Foxwell lighting the Zags up from everywhere on the floor, Emmanuel Innocenti logged only 14 minutes, a baffling decision given the game script. Coach Mark Few took notice, and in the five contests since, Innocenti has averaged more than 34 minutes per game and contributed an average of 11 points per game. His value has always shown up in physical defense, rebounding, and toughness. What has changed is his willingness to assert himself offensively, attacking space rather than floating around it.
Ike’s scoring streak continues to anchor the offense, but Gonzaga’s recent stretch has also highlighted how essential Innocenti has become to the team’s balance and identity. With that context in place, the rematch shifts character completely.
Key 1: The Emmanuel Innocenti rematch
Portland barely had to deal with Emmanuel Innocenti the first time around. After going 0-for-5 from the field, he was pulled early and saw the floor little after that. The Pilots will see a lot of Innocenti on Wednesday, and he’ll have every opportunity now to prove why.
Joel Foxwell has had some very nice games for the Pilots since their first meeting, dropping 35 points on Pepperdine last week before following it with 20 against Seattle U. He remains The Guy for Portland as both a scorer and a creator, and the primary task for Gonzaga is neutralizing him completely. Innocenti gives the Bulldogs their best chance to do it. His ability to pressure the ball, fight through screens, and absorb contact in the lane makes him the most reliable option to disrupt Foxwell’s rhythm, keep him away from the rim, and force Portland to look elsewhere for offense.
Taking Foxwell out of the game defensively is the baseline expectation. Beating him on the scoreboard would turn the rematch into a statement, one that reflects how much Gonzaga’s rotation and identity have shifted since the first meeting.
Key 2: Offensive rebounding
Getting beaten by twelve on the defensive glass flat-out cannot happen again. Some of that gap came from missed shots piling up, with Gonzaga shooting 26-of-65 in Portland, but bad shooting nights always demand a response, and that response starts with following the ball.
The frustrating part remains that Gonzaga bested Portland across most of the box score and still lost that game because of that ridiculous rebounding margin. That imbalance kept possessions short and removed any chance to build pressure when the offense stalled. Cleaning that up changes things for the Zags dramatically.
This rematch requires help from the wings, especially Tyon Grant-Foster crashing in with intent, along with another forceful night from Graham Ike inside. If shots start falling, rebounding becomes a bonus. If they don’t, it becomes mandatory. Either way, Gonzaga has to turn missed shots into extra possessions or risk replaying the same mistake that swung the first matchup.
How often does Gonzaga get outscored in the paint? The last time these two teams met, the Pilots scored 40 points around the rim to the Zags’ 26. Jermaine Ballisager Webb was a major factor for Portland, using his 7-foot-1 frame to score at the rim and stretch the floor, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds. 6-10 sophomore James O’Donnell added to the problem, scoring 16 points off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting, almost all of it from point-blank range.
Portland’s bigs were comfortable catching deep, finishing through contact, and cleaning the glass, while Gonzaga struggled to dictate physical terms around the basket. That has to change in the rematch, especially with how much the Zags’ offense depends on winning those areas.
Jalen Warley plays a central role here. His value usually shows up through quick hands, positioning, and making larger forwards uncomfortable on the defensive end, but that impact never materialized in the first meeting, where he finished with just one steal and one rebound. This time, he has to assert himself earlier and more consistently in the paint, keeping Portland’s bigs off balance and off the glass. That starts with physicality and discipline, which leads directly into the next priority…
Injuries and rotation changes have stripped away much of the depth that once allowed Gonzaga to successfully absorb foul trouble with minimal consequence. Braden Huff remains out with a knee injury. Steele Venters has fallen out of the rotation. Ismaila Diagne continues to alternate between impact and liability. Jalen Warley’s thigh bruise has lingered longer than expected. The result has been a rotation that has tightened back into a seven-man group in recent games.
That reality raises the stakes around foul discipline. Gonzaga cannot afford extended stretches with Graham Ike, Grant-Foster, or Warley sitting because of avoidable fouls, especially with Portland capable of exploiting mismatches inside.
The solution remains simple: stay vertical at the rim, avoid reaching in driving lanes, and pick moments carefully when going for rebounds or diving after loose balls. Any lapse puts pressure on an already thin rotation and invites the same opportunistic interior play that swung the first matchup.
In mid-January of last season, Gonzaga dropped a careless game to Oregon State, then saw the Beavers again in Spokane and erased any doubt as to who the better team was with a forty-point response at home. This game calls for that same tone. The priorities stay simple and already defined: contain Foxwell, generate second-chance points, stay disciplined defensively, and lean into quick, decisive scoring around the rim to build a lead that grows possession by possession.
If Gonzaga establishes control early and sustains pressure, this game can move quickly from grudge match to tune-up, with Saint Mary’s waiting in Moraga on Saturday. Ideally, the rematch with Portland begins with vengeance and wraps up as a confidence-building statement that the Zags can travel south with for their final regular-season West Coast Conference game before the conference tournament and Selection Sunday.
