Double-digit scoring performances by Steven Gray, Marquise Carter, Elias Harris, and David Stockton paced the Gonzaga Bulldogs tonight as they went on to knock off the Loyola Marymount Lions tonight by a final tally of 67-57. As the final score would indicate, this game wasn't one for excitement or offensive explosions. The Zags' sloppy play & sloppier shooting carried on to tonight's game as they shot 41% from the floor and only hit 2-8 from beyond the arc. The good news: LMU shot 35% from the floor and truly looked like a team barely capable of division one qualification.
In the first ten or so minutes of the game, it looked like Gonzaga was going to make a rout of this thing. Old habits got in the way of that happening as the game got down to a single possession at multiple points but LMU simply did not have enough quality plays to overcome the Bulldogs. The starters got the Zags off to a nice start to this one as they managed to build up a 20-8 lead in front of a very scarce crowd tonight in Los Angeles. Sam Dower came in and provided a nice spark off the bench and continued to display his smooth touch around the rim. It was all looking good for Mark Few's club early on.
A trio of turnovers midway through the first half subtly shifted the flow of the game and LMU was able to rally within the next four minutes to get the lead down to four with three minutes remaining in the first half. The game followed a similar trend throughout as Gonzaga seemed to build three or four seemingly safe leads only to see the comeback happen. A big part of this is the reason I mentioned above: turnovers. Unofficially, the Zags had 20 turnovers against 15 assists. 12 of these turnovers were attributed to two players: Meech Goodson (5) and Steven Gray (7). It was simply a sloppy game for all parties involved tonight in LA.
The Zags finish off their California road trip with a Saturday game against Pepperdine.