Gonzaga sails past North Dakota 97 - 66

In the last of the three home tune-up games against the bottom quarter of the KenPom ranked teams, Gonzaga topped the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 97 – 66. Corey Kispert led the Zags in scoring with 20 point followed by Filip Petrusev with 19 points to go along with a career high 15 rebounds. North Dakota was let by senior guard Marlon Stewart with 23 points.

With their tallest player being 6’ 9”, North Dakota had no answer for the Gonzaga interior game as the Zags jumped out to a 15 – 2 lead after five minutes of play. Petrusev, Watson and Timme were a combined 23 for 35 from the floor and the Hawks were outrebounded 53 to 29. All three of the Zag bigs demonstrated an array of interior moves looking equally adept at using both hand from either side of the rim. Gonzaga had eight blocks, the most spectacular coming from Anton Watson who didn’t just block the shot but grabbed it and secured the ball.

Gonzaga shot an impressive 58% from the field and 44% from deep. For the second game in a row, six Zags scored in double figures. North Dakota was held to 35% from the field and 23% from deep. The Fighting Hawks seemed to get frustrated on offense, settling for 31 shots from beyond the arc. Late in the first half, North Dakota showed some life cutting the deficit to 30 – 21, but a bad call on Timme caused Mark Few to lose his temper and the Zags responded with a 14 - 1 run.

Though the opponents haven’t been very impressive, Gonzaga has been shooting almost 60% from the field over their three games and are averaging 102 points per game. Their first real test happens on Friday as they travel to College Station, Texas to take on Texas A&M (#70 KenPom).