SPOKANE – A big night from beyond the arc had the Gonzaga Bulldogs in cruise control en route to a 96-64 triumph over Portland on Wednesday.
Gonzaga (17-6, 8-2 WCC) knocked down a season-high 15 3-pointers against a laid-back defensive approach from Portland (9-16, 3-7 WCC).
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 19-1 lead in the first half after connecting on four triples early. Nolan Hickman, Anton Watson and Ben Gregg made it 9-0 not even two minutes into action before Shantay Legans burned his first timeout to regroup his team. It didn’t help the Pilots’ cause that they didn’t make their first shot from the field until the 14:15 mark.
Gonzaga rode its fast start to a 50-23 advantage at halftime. Portland cut its deficit to 18 on two separate occasions in the second half, as Juan Sebastian Gorosito scored six of his 13 points on back-to-back triples, followed by a deep ball from Bol Dengdit, to make it 57-39 at the 14:28 mark.
The Bulldogs restrengthened their grip behind Braden Huff’s hot hand, as the redshirt freshman scored 10 points in a row to make it 72-48 with under 10 minutes to play. Huff led all scorers with 25 points and shot 11-of-16 from the field.