No. 15 Gonzaga held New Mexico State without a field goal for the final 11:23 Saturday on its way to a 109-68 romp Saturday in Spokane, Wash.
The Bulldogs (2-0) broke open a close game by starting the second half on an 8-0 run and adding an 18-0 run down the stretch.
Davis Fogle scored 22 points, matching his career high set in the season opener against Purdue, and added six assists while Isiah Harwell had 22 points and five rebounds for Gonzaga. Braden Huff scored 20, Javon Bennett added 13 and Massamba Diop posted 12 points and seven rebounds. Xaivian Lee handed out 10 assists.
The Bulldogs shot 61.3% from the floor and made 13 of 24 3-point attempts, including 4 of 6 by Harwell. They allowed the Aggies to shoot 55.6% in the first half but just 28.6% in the second.
Mark Lavrenov had 19 points and DJ Dudley and Jae’Coby Osborne scored 10 apiece for New Mexico State (1-1), which committed 19 turnovers to just six by the Bulldogs.
With Gonzaga ahead 77-62, Fogle’s fastbreak layup with 9:27 to go launched the 18-0 run. Harwell poked at a pass near midcourt and took it the other way for a thunderous dunk to give the Bulldogs their 20-point lead at 83-62.
Harwell added a 3-pointer and two layups during the run before Bennett fed Diop for an alley-oop dunk that punctuated the stretch in style and made it 95-62.
New Mexico State missed its final nine attempts from the field and lost 10 turnovers during the final 11 minutes.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Fogle had the Bulldogs ahead 19-8 early, but New Mexico State pieced together a 10-1 run while Gonzaga hit a field goal drought of nearly 3 1/2 minutes. Dudley scored five points and Jermaine Washington added a three-point play in that span.
The Aggies drew within one point on two occasions, the latter at 24-23. Huff answered with a crucial three-point play to start giving Gonzaga some breathing room.
New Mexico State kept pace and nearly made it a one-possession deficit going into halftime, but Bennett knocked down a jumper with four seconds left to make it 47-42 Gonzaga at the break.
Ignited by Harwell’s 3-pointer on their first possession, the Bulldogs scored the first eight points of the second half, getting the Aggies to burn a timeout in the process.
Washington’s 3-pointer got the Aggies within 71-60 at 11:23 — and marked their last field goal of the day.
–Field Level Media
