Gonzaga Cruises by San Diego

As with every West Coast Conference team this season, San Diego never had a chance. Gonzaga entered this game as a 32-point favorite. With 20 seconds to go in the first half, they held a 32 point lead. Gonzaga scored 51 first half points without hitting a single three-pointer. In the end, the Bulldogs improved to 22-0, obliterating the Toreros 106-69 on Saturday night.

After a fairly choppy first few minutes, Gonzaga turned on the clamps defensively and it led to easy buckets the other way. San Diego turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, leading to 19 Gonzaga points. The Zags had a whopping 40 points in the paint in the opening 20 minutes, led by Drew Timme’s 17 points on 7-of-7 shooting inside the arc. Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs both chipped in with 11 first half points.

The second half was full of individual highlights. Sean Farnham got a pizza named after him, Pavel Zakharov hit a three, and Aaron Cook put a poor San Diego kid on a poster.

Timme finished with a team-high 21 points. Kispert added 17, Suggs 16, and Andrew Nembhard 12. Eleven different Zags scored a bucket on Saturday. Their 70 points in the paint were more than San Diego’s team total of 69.

Gonzaga has now won 49 straight home games, one away from tying the program record, set when the McCarthey Athletic Center opened from 2003-2007. The Bulldogs next opponent is the team that ended that original 50-game home winning streak, the Santa Clara Broncos. Santa Clara picked up a good home win over Pepperdine on Saturday, exploding for 86 points. It was the first time they scored 80+ points against a D1 team this season. They’re gonna need another monster offensive performance to have a chance against Gonzaga, who has beaten Santa Clara by at least 49 points in each of the last three seasons.