No. 8 Gonzaga gets cooking with Tillie back vs. Bakersfield

Gonzaga finally got healthy this week.

The Bulldogs also got a dose of reality.

The eighth-ranked team in the nation welcomed back Killian Tillie, its best returning player from Gonzaga's Elite Eight team a year ago.

But after winning their first four games by an average of 35 points, the Bulldogs survived a stern challenge from Texas-Arlington, beating the Mavericks 72-66 on Tuesday.

Heading into Saturday's game with Cal State Bakersfield, Gonzaga (5-0) has a clear edge over its Western Athletic Conference foe, which has yet to earn a Division I win this season. Coach Mark Few's challenge is to make sure his team doesn't overlook the Roadrunners, who traveled to Spokane last season and lost, 89-54.

The Roadrunners (2-3) face a monumental task after losing to San Francisco on Tuesday, 100-70. Cam Allen scored 15 points and Justin McCall added 14 points.

Coach Rod Barnes will be leaning on Allen to provide leadership, despite this being the Loyola-Marymount transfer's first season with the Roadrunners.

"The great thing about him (is) he's taking coaching," Barnes told Bakersfield.com. "I love coaching him from the standpoint (that) he accepts it. He accepts the challenge."

Barnes installed Allen as the starting point guard a week before the season began and the results have been mixed.

"I feel more comfortable than ever when I'm on the court," Allen said. "I feel in total command of the offense. I know when to attack, I know when to relax ... and it's going to only increase as the season goes on."

But Allen, one of six new players in Barnes' rotation, will have his hands full against Gonzaga guards Admon Gilder and Ryan Woolridge.

Gilder is averaging 13.6 points per game. Woolridge pours in 12.6 each time out while connecting on 57 percent of his field goals and a whopping 67 percent from beyond the arc.

The return of Tillie makes the Bulldogs complete. He went 6-of-11 against Texas Arlington and just might have been the difference in the victory.

With Tillie in the lineup, "the ball moves better," Few told the Spokesman-Review. "And there's just so many times in basketball when you call a play and maybe it just goes wrong. ... At that point, you just forget the play and play basketball and there's nobody better in the country when it comes to that.

"It's like having another crafty point guard out there who really understands."

Tillie missed last season's matchup between the two, but wasn't needed. The Roadrunners made just 22 of 60 shots, including 3 of 19 from 3-point range. They also committed 20 turnovers.

That's bad news for the Roadrunners. Gonzaga is holding opponents to just 38 percent from the field and 61 points per game.

If the Bulldogs have a weakness, it could be their free-throw shooting. Against the Mavericks they went 17-for-30. They're making just 66.4 percent of their foul shots for the season.

Even Gilder, a 77 percent free-throw shooter, struggled connecting on just 7 of 11.

"Most definitely, we're going to get to the free-throw line and practice," Gilder told the Spokesman-Review. "We're going to need to make those, especially in big games."

--Field Level Media