By Justin Reed The Spokesman-Review Key moment The most explosive moment of the game came early in the second half. It was a fast break alley-oop from Zach Norvell Jr. to Brandon Clarke. Norvell grabbed the missed shot and took off down the court before a quick flip over two defenders made an easy finish for Clarke. Offensive MVP Let’s stick with Norvell here. He led the team with 17 points and dished out four assists. He extended his team lead on made 3-pointers this season after making three more, sitting at 54. Corey Kispert is next with 34 made 3s. Defensive MVP How about the guy who is on pace to break Gonzaga’s single-season block record? Clarke continued his rim protection, blocking three shots to get to 64 for the year. He will pass Austin Daye (70 blocks in 2008-09) to become No. 1 by the end of the season.<doc-sep>At the beginning of the year, there were pretty much two nice stories rolling out of the West Coast Conference: the San Francisco Dons and the Loyola Marymount Lions. The Zags already dispatched the Dons on their home court, and it is time to show the Lions what is up when they roll through Spokane. LMU defeated Georgetown early in the year, and that is really the big cherry on top of the schedule that overall wasn’t that good. The Lions played two non-D1 teams, the most allowed by the new WCC scheduling. The storybook year fell apart with a nasty, nasty win to UC Riverside. WCC play hasn’t been too kind to LMU either. The Lions have lost to both Pepperdine and Saint Mary’s, and it looks like Gonzaga is going to put LMU on its first losing streak of the season. Game info<doc-sep>Wiseguys got back on track yesterday, cashing two of their three Wednesday plays. With a massive 50+ game slate today, sharps will look to stay disciplined and get down on the most valuable games of the day in hopes of stretching their win streak to two days in a row. Using the betting tools available at Sports Insights and The Action Network, I’ve pinpointed which games sharps are betting Thursday night, with games starting at 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. >> All odds as of 3 p.m. ET. Download The Action Network App to get real-time college basketball odds and track your bets Betting Terms to Know Steam Move: Sudden, drastic and uniform line movement across the market caused by an overload of sharp action from respected players. Reverse Line Movement: When the betting line moves in the opposite direction of the betting percentages. It’s a top smart money indicator. Line Freeze: When one side is getting heavy betting, but the line won’t budge, indicating sharp liability on the other side. Juice: The tax or commission that bettors must pay sportsbooks in order for them to accept your wager. A -115 juice means a bettor would have to wager $115 to win $100. Full Sports Betting Glossary James Madison @ Delaware 7 p.m. ET | SNY Sharp angle: James Madison (moved from +5 to +4.5) Sharps are on the fourth President bigly tonight. Delaware (12-7) opened as a 5-point home favorite against James Madison (9-9). Based on the won-loss records, the public is siding with the Blue Hens at a 56% clip. However, we’ve seen this line fall one-half point toward JMU. Why would the oddsmakers drop the line to give public Delaware backers an easier shot at covering? As always, follow the money. JMU is getting only 46% of bets but a whopping 81% of dollars. This massive bets vs. dollars discrepancy indicates sharp wagers backing the road dog. The Dukes also find themselves in a valuable historical spot, as they fit the profitable Bet Labs PRO system Poor ATS vs Good ATS Teams (59% ATS since 2005). Loyola Marymount @ Gonzaga 9 p.m. ET | ROOT Sport NW Sharp angle: Loyola Marymount (stayed at +23.5) Recreational bettors love taking favorites, home teams and teams that are highly ranked with impressive won-loss records. Gonzaga (16-2, ranked 5th overall) checks off all the boxes tonight. Despite the massive spread, currently 73% of bets are expecting a blowout and laying the points with the Zags. However, this line hasn’t moved since opening (still -23.5). Typically, overwhelming betting would push the line to -24.5 or -25.5. The fact that the line has remained frozen indicates liability on the road dog, with sportsbooks reluctant to hand out an extra half-point. Loyola Marymount (13-4) is getting only 27% of bets but 63% of dollars, further evidence of smart money grabbing the points, not laying them. Oregon State @ Arizona State 10 p.m. ET | Fox Sports 1 Sharp angle: Over (moved from 144 to 147.5) Sharps and squares seem to be on the same page with this Pac-12 after dark over/under. The total opened at 144. Currently 71% of bets are taking the over. Typically, lopsided betting of this degree would push a total 1-2 points, but we’ve seen the total rise 3.5 points to 147.5. Some books are even posting 148. Using our Sports Insights Bet Signals, we tracked three big steam moves on the Over, with sharps hammering Over 144, Over 145 and Over 146.5. The fact that pro bettors kept hitting the over even though the number got worse signals supreme wiseguy confidence.<doc-sep>Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. No matter how you feel about the local broadcast trio who bring Gonzaga’s basketball games into local living rooms, there is something comforting about the continuity of roles. Greg Heister not only shows his excitement on most every minute of the play-by-play, he often plays the role of target for the barbs of his partners. Those two, former Gonzaga players Dan Dickau and Richard Fox, have other roles as well, with Dickau focusing on the offense and Fox the defense. It’s consistent. It’s relaxing. It’s expected. But when one of the trio is missing, as it was Thursday night during Gonzaga’s 73-55 win over visiting Loyola Marymount on KHQ, it’s a bit jarring. At first. It turned out, though, change can be invigorating. What they saw … • Dickau was on the road with his daughter, as she is competing in a national skating competition. Without him, Fox had the floor for most of the night. And with the defensive-minded Lions in the Kennel, it was a good match. Case in point: A late first-half discussion between Fox and Heister about the Zags’ defense – what else? – and how to gauge Gonzaga’s improvement – or lack of same. The context? Loyola Marymount (and a few other West Coast Conference schools) are not at the same offensive level as some of GU’s nonconference opponents – to put it nicely. “Are we taking things away (the opposition) is trying to get?” Fox asked when asked by Heister what criteria should be used to judge their performance. “Are our rotations dialed in? Are we communicating defensively? Are we taking what we want to do … onto the floor? “That’s how you measure things.” Then he remembered one more. “And it’s shot quality,” Fox continued. “Are we forcing difficult shots, shots they are more uncomfortable taking?” The answers to those questions, Fox said, is, if not yes, at least they’re getting more consistent at those things. • Gonzaga led 17-16 with 12 minutes left in the first half. It led 55-26 with 13 minutes remaining. The 39-9 run was keyed by the Zags’ defense. As the run began, Fox pinpointed the cause right away. “GU has just ramped it up defensively, partly with their on-ball pressure and how they’ve tried to double or hedge hard these ball screens,” he said. • The flip side of that is sometimes the emphasis on defense can be misplaced, at least a little. Loyola Marymount (13-5, 1-3 in WCC play) built an 11-1 start to its season mainly on its defense. But the quality of the Lions’ opposition may have contributed to their statistics – and their record. The more advanced analytics, like those from Ken Pomeroy, don’t see the Lions as all that solid. Even though Fox labeled Loyola “maybe the best defensive team” in the conference, they are a well-back fourth, and 103rd in the nation. Going into Thursday, USF was still rated the best (43rd) with Gonzaga second (45) and Saint Mary’s (100) ahead. • What Loyola Marymount is good at is forcing turnovers. That showed as Gonzaga had 16, many of those of the “what-were-they-thinking?” variety. But overall, Gonzaga’s defense was better in every measurable metric, from turnovers forced (17-16), to shooting percentage (the Lions shot 38, but were below 30 until the final minutes; GU shot 51 percent) to defensive rebounds (GU led 23-19). John Blanchette: Conference switch wouldn’t stop Gonzaga from being dominant at home Actual human engagement returned to McCarthey Athletic Center on Thursday night, and not a minute too soon. | Read more » What we saw … • Before the season began, there was some thought the fifth-ranked Zags (17-2, 4-0) would play their three bigs (Killian Tillie, Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura) at the same time some. But Tillie’s injury scuttled those plans. With his return, it was just a matter of time. That time came with 11:29 left. “I’m fascinated to see this look for GU,” Fox said, “having all three bigs on the court.” Heister agreed. The experiment lasted just a few minutes. • Clarke was his usual dominating self, with a dunk drawing most of the attention on the broadcast. But there was a play midway through the second half that really showcased his talent. The Lions were pressuring full court. They stretched to every Gonzaga player, even as the Zags spread the court. The simple answer? Clarke flashed to the middle about 30 feet from the basket. The 6-foot-8, 231-pound sophomore Jordan Bell came out with him. Big mistake. Clarke made one move, blew past Bell like a point guard and finished with a layup. And a foul. Those were just two of his 13 points (he missed the free throw). But it showed something few 6-8 posts can do.<doc-sep>
The Loyola Marymount Lions fell to the Gonzaga Bulldogs tonight at the McCarthey Athletic Center 73-55. The Lions came into the game with a 13-4 record after starting the season with eight straight wins, but they had already dropped two of their three WCC contests and were unlikely to give the #5 ranked Zags a real challenge. What did challenge Gonzaga tonight was sloppy play as the Zags committed 16 turnovers. The sloppy play was prevalent on both sides of the court the Lions committed 17 turnovers against only 9 assists. The Zags were led by Zach Norvell with 17 points, with four Zags scoring in double figures. Rui Hachimura led the Zags with 7 rebounds and Corey Kispert had a solid, balanced game with 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a block. LMU was led by James Batemon with 12 points, six points under his season average, with no other Lion scoring in double figures. Like the Pacific Tigers, the Lions successfully limited the games overall offensive possessions by taking the shot clock under 10 seconds almost every time down the court. The strategy worked well for the first 12 minutes of the game as the Zags held a 21-18 lead with 7:50 left on the clock. The Zags then went on a 15-4 run to end the half to go into the locker room up 36-22 at the break. The start of the second half was more of the same as the Zags outscored LMU 19-4 in the first 8 minutes, but then GU seemed to lose interest. LMU scored 29 points in the last 11 minutes forcing Coach Few to reinsert the starters at about the 8-minute mark and limiting the playing time for GU’s second team. Probably the most notable parts of tonight’s game were Kispert having his best outing in several games, Zach Norvell going on a three-minute scoring binge, Brandon Clarke adding great assists to his offensive repertoire, and Killian Tillie continuing to show he’ll possibly be the team’s best player in about two more weeks. The Zags travel to Portland on Saturday to take on the 7-11 Pilots who are 0-3 in conference play.