Back with my day-after post from Gonzaga’s 91-52 victory over Northern Arizona on Wednesday.

The links: My game story, Dan Pelle’s photo gallery (some have suggested his pictures are a tad bit better than the failed camera-phone snap from 25 rows up on press row that I posted on twitter!), and the view from the Arizona Daily Sun.

Read on for more on Sabonis, Alberts, stats and quotes.

--Domantas Sabonis didn’t play long, mainly because of a first-half elbow that clipped an NAU player and sent the sophomore forward to the bench after 5 highly productive minutes (9 points). He didn’t play all that much (13 minutes) in the second half as the Zags’ lead mushroomed to 41 points.

But he got a lot done, scoring 26 points on 12 of 13 shooting to go with seven rebounds and one blocked shot.

“He’s a beast down there,” Kyle Wiltjer said. “He gets us going with his intensity.”

“I got after him a little bit this week to be more aggressive,” coach Mark Few said. “He was great. The more aggressive he is for us, the better we are.”

You can find Sabonis’ comments on coming off the bench vs. starting in my game story. Few’s thoughts?

“He just doesn’t care,” Few said. “The beauty of Domas is it’s all about winning. It’s a great quality to have.”

--I read up on Pittsburgh’s first game post-Japan, curious to see how the players dealt with the lengthy travel and time changes. A few Panthers mentioned they were still battling fatigue and tired legs.

The Zags were in a similar situation, though they had an extra day to recover – Pitt crushed D-II St. Joseph’s (Indiana) on Tuesday.

Gonzaga looked fairly energized, ran the floor and was particularly solid on defense. NAU big man Ako Kaluna struck for 11 points, but all came in the first half. Guard Kris Yanku put up 18 points but made just 6 of 15 FG attempts.

“I think we’re all good now,” senior guard Kyle Dranginis said. “It was really cool because management had us on a sleeping schedule so it wasn’t too hard to adjust. On the long flights, you had a good idea when to sleep so you wouldn’t be up all night. I think everybody is back to normal.”

Just in time for their next adventure. After Saturday’s home date with Mount St. Mary’s, Gonzaga travels to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis.

--Redshirt freshman wing Bryan Alberts was the eighth man in the rotation, but he will carve out plenty of minutes if he contributes the way he did against NAU. Alberts softened up the Lumberjacks’ paint-conscious defense with a pair of 3-pointers late in the first half. He finished 3 of 4 from long distance and added three assists and a steal in 18 minutes.

Alberts said he understands his role is to be ready when called upon and to be ready for open spot-up 3s.

“Going into it I wasn’t expecting much,” he said. “I got more than I was asking for.”

--Interesting evening for Josh Perkins, who drew oohs and aahs with great and not-so-great plays during his 29 minutes. He had quite the stat line: one 3-pointer, four boards, five points, six assists, six turnovers and four steals. Perkins is a redshirt freshman, which means there will probably more nights like this as he takes the steering wheel of the offense.

He threaded the needle on a couple of his assists, threw guys open on others (like an NFL quarterback) and teammates better be alert when he’s on the court or they might have a basketball clanked off the side of their head.

On the other hand, Perkins was in too much of a hurry at times and committed two open-court turnovers that NAU turned into field goals, prompting an exasperated Few to throw both arms up in the air.

“He had stretches of great play, I thought he had one of his better defensive nights that he’s had so far, against a couple of (NAU) guards that came in and had scored it pretty well,” Few said. “He just has to cut down on some of those turnovers.”

STATS OF NOTE

--GU scored 31 points in the first nine minutes of the second half.

--Aside from Alberts’ 3-of-4, GU made just 3 of 19 treys.

--The Zags scored 21 points on 15 offensive rebounds and 21 points on 15 NAU turnovers.

--Gonzaga made 53 percent of its shots, 57 percent in the second half.

QUOTEBOOK

NAU coach Jack Murphy on Sabonis: “Honestly as an opponent you probably still want him shooting those (jumpers) because he’s so good inside.”

Alberts: “It was great. I feel like it’s been a long time coming.”

Dranginis on Sabonis: “When he’s aggressive, I don’t know too many people that can stop him. That’s the style of play that he excels at.”

Few on the offense: “We had better spacing and moved the ball pretty well.”

Sabonis: “Just knowing it was the first game of season, the exhibition game I got hurt, then in Japan we only played half the game. I really wanted to play a full game.”

Murphy: “They started out 1 of 9 on 3s but they hit 3 in the last minutes of the first half and that kind of broke the game open.”