As another winter storm hit the Spokane area, leaving the Kennel eerily quiet throughout a majority of tonight's game, the Gonzaga Bulldogs took care of business as they defeated Lafayette, 83-55. Gonzaga has faced a number of teams that are simply unable to matchup with their tremendous size in the paint which was the case tonight as 7-footer Kelly Olynyk led the Zags with 15 points. Sophomore forward Elias Harris wasn't far behind with 14 points to go along with nine boards.
In total, Gonzaga outscored Lafayette 40-12 in the paint and won the rebounding battle by 20 over the Leopards.
Another pleasant sight to see in this one was the play of point guards Demetri Goodson and Marquise Carter. The tandem combined for 22 points and 11 assists on 8-14 shooting. It was nice to see Coach Few stick with these two for a balance of the game as they will likely be the two who will have to step up in Gonzaga's next test, the Oklahoma State Cowboys. In particular, I thought Meech did a nice job of setting the table for some of the bigs and it was clear from the get go that no one on Lafayette could defend him off the dribble so he really attacked the defense in the first half and had a number of lay-ins. Against, it is Lafayette, but any solid point guard play is worth note this season.
Steven Gray returned from injury tonight. The Zags leading scorer and lone senior played 17 minutes of pedestrian basketball as he didn't attempt a shot. He had three boards and an assist as he was clearly in there just to break a sweat and test out the back in game situation. Overall, he appeared to be moving well enough and he should be out there against OSU.
That's all there really is to take away from this one. A cupcake after Christmas is never a good time to figure out a team and I expect we'll see a different type of effort on New Years Eve against the 'Pokes.