The point when No. 19 Gonzaga typically rides a long winning streak has arrived.
Fresh off beating Pepperdine in their West Coast Conference opener, the Bulldogs look to notch another triumph when they entertain Portland to start off January on Thursday night in Spokane, Wash.
Gonzaga (10-4, 1-0 WCC) has long dominated the WCC and began conference play Monday with an 89-82 road victory over the Waves. It was the Bulldogs’ 48th straight win over Pepperdine.
Portland is one of the other teams the Zags usually beat up on, having won the past 18 meetings and 38 of the last 39. Coach Mark Few is in his 26th season as head coach and he sports a 45-2 mark against the Pilots during his tenure.
Gonzaga won last season’s two meetings by an average of 26.5 points. The Bulldogs recorded an 86-65 road win and a 96-64 home victory.
In Monday’s victory, the Bulldogs led by as many as 20 points before Pepperdine closed the gap.
“We did this ourselves,” Few said afterward. “We had some silly, silly, silly turnovers at the start of the second half. Just really bad turnovers, which let them get going.”
The Bulldogs were just 2 of 15 from 3-point range but dominated the interior, 63-34 in points in the paint.
“We were shooting a lot of 3s early,” Gonzaga forward Braden Huff said. “They weren’t really falling. We knew we had to deliver inside and we were able to do that for the most part. There were a couple lapses at points, but I feel like we did a pretty good job.”
Huff had 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting and big man Graham Ike had 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go with nine rebounds.
“They were great,” Few said of the frontcourt. “They were getting doubled and they were playing through the doubles. The guys did a good job finding them. They also did a good job posting and ducking in, and that led to some opportunities for the guards.”
Guard Khalif Battle scored a team-high 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Forward Ben Gregg added 12 points and six rebounds.
The Pilots (5-10, 0-2) opened WCC play by losing 89-73 to visiting Washington State on Saturday and 89-79 to host Oregon State on Monday.
Freshman Austin Rapp scored 22 points against the Beavers for his third 20-point outing of the season. He leads the Pilots in scoring (14.4 points per game), rebounds (6.3 per game) and blocked shots (17 total).
Max Mackinnon added 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. He scored a season-high 22 two days earlier against Washington State. He averages 10.1 points per game, just behind second-leading scorer Vukasin Masic (10.2).
Portland could use a big game from guard Chris Austin, who scored a season-best 20 points in a 74-64 win over Lafayette on Dec. 21 but has just 25 total points over the past six games.
As for his success against Lafayette, Austin said, “We saw mismatches inside and our game plan, we just attacked that. One of my roles is to attack mismatches.”
The Pilots lack a signature victory this season and missed a big opportunity at Oregon on Nov. 12. Portland led by 13 points with just over eight minutes left in regulation before the Ducks rallied and eventually posted an 80-70 overtime victory.
–Field Level Media
