Gonzaga Back on Track in 101-62 Win Over Texas Southern

The Gonzaga Bulldogs rebounded from their first loss of the season, taking their anger out on the Texas Southern Tigers, 101-62.

It was a balanced attack across the board, with seven Zags scoring in double figures, led by Corey Kispert’s 17 points. Deep breath here: Joel Ayayi added 16, Killian Tillie, Filip Petrusev, and Drew Timme chipped in 12, Ryan Woolridge had 11, and Admon Gilder scored 10 points. All in all, it was a nice offensive game you’d like to see from the Zags.

Where as the game against Michigan was an all-around breakdown on both the offensive and defensive end, Gonzaga looked like a much better squad this time around. The defensive miscues were fewer and further between. After letting Michigan drain 53 percent of their shots, Gonzaga held Texas Southern to less than 40 percent shooting on the evening.

The Zags were incredibly aggressive on the offensive glass, led by Drew Timme who grabbed four of the team’s 19 offensive boards. Timme finished with one of his best lines of his budding GU career, the previously mentioned 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks.

Perhaps most importantly on the offensive end, the Zags notched 22 assists on 42 made field goals.

Of course, tonight’s outcome is exactly what the outcome should have been, so we won’t read too much into it. The Zags were humbled against the Wolverines, and showed their youth as a squad. The Texas Southern Tigers were the tune-up needed for what is coming up next: away games against the Washington Huskies and Arizona Wildcats and a home game against the North Carolina Tar Heels. That three game stretch is up there with the toughest any team in the country has scheduled.

So yeah, the Zags forced a lot of turnovers (Texas Southern turns the ball over a lot already) and grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds (Texas Southern is one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the nation). There isn’t a whole lot to extrapolate from this contest, outside of the fact that Gonzaga shot 9-of-16 from the free throw line to firmly and finally cement free throw shooting as a legitimate issue with the team.