Drew Timme scored 24 of career-high 38 points in second half, leads No. 6 Gonzaga to 99-90 win at Pacific

STOCKTON, Calif. – Often times this season, Gonzaga has been able to lean on its high-powered offense to mask the Bulldogs’ inconsistent, unpredictable defense.

Drew Timme took those duties on single-handedly on Saturday against Pacific.

The senior forward posted a career-high 38 points to help the sixth-ranked Zags break away from the Tigers – and rebound from Thursday’s record-busting home loss to Loyola Marymount – with a 99-90 win at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

Timme entered Gonzaga’s sixth conference game 250 points shy of Frank Burgess’ school scoring record and played as if he had intentions to erase the rest of the gap on Saturday, leading the Bulldogs with 14 points in the first half and following with 24 more in the second.

“Just got to do what it takes to win,” Timme said. “Obviously, I didn’t have the game I saw fit the other night and it’s all about how you bounce back and respond to adversity. It’s something we’re going to face all year, this league’s really good. We’ve been saying that the whole time and you literally can drop one to anyone if you’re not on your A-game.”

A Pacific team picked to finish last in the preseason West Coast Conference poll thought it might be the next team to test that theory 48 hours after LMU stunned the Zags in Spokane.

The Tigers knocked down eight 3-pointers in the first half and Gonzaga needed a fadeaway, buzzer-beating baseline jumper from Rasir Bolton to force a 47-all tie at halftime.

Timme fed Anton Watson under the basket for a dunk to open the second half and the All-American took Gonzaga’s scoring matters into his own hands for the next 7 minutes, 38 seconds.

During that stretch, Timme was the only GU player to put the ball in the basket, breaking out his package of spin moves, hook shots and fallaway jumpers to score 10 straight field goals for the Bulldogs. Timme had Gonzaga’s first 20 points of the half before Bolton scored on a layup with 11 minutes, 46 seconds remaining.

“You can kind of see it in the defender’s face, the opposing team, that there’s nothing you can really do to stop him,” Watson said. “That’s what we need him to do in crunch time and in close games.”

Timme, who had a previous career high of 37 points in last year’s home win against Texas, finished 17 of 23 from the field and 4 of 11 from the free-throw line. In the second half alone, Timme was 12 of 14 from the field for 24 points. He reached the 38-point mark with 2:16 remaining and missed two free throws inside the final minutes to come up two points shy of the first 40-point game of his career.

“He has a great stretch where he was delivering and for the most part 1-on-1 coverage, I think because we’ve shot the ball so well,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “We delivered and we needed to. We definitely won with our offense tonight. It definitely wasn’t our defense so much in that game.”

Timme’s scoring burst early in the second half coincided with Gonzaga’s best defensive stretch of the game.

The Bulldogs used a 12-0 run to open up a 61-49 lead, giving themselves a cushion that they’d have to fall back on when the Tigers closed the gap to 65-63 on Keylan Boone’s 3-pointer.

Timme took advantage of Pacific’s single-man coverage on the next play, scoring down low on a feed from Watson. Pacific closed the gap to three points on one other occasion, at 78-75, but Bolton delivered a jumper to make it 80-75 and the Bulldogs opened up another 12-point lead on consecutive shots from Timme in the final 3 minutes.

“It was weird, they were like all five in the paint but they were kind of just there,” Timme said. “So it’s kind of like, they were in the passing lane but they were in there. So I kind of just had to … just go. The shot was falling tonight and the guys kept finding me in good spots.

“We’ll take that all day.”

Watson turned in his third double-double of the season, scoring 16 points while tying his career high with 13 rebounds.

Julian Strawther dealt with a nagging ankle injury but still finished with 15 points and five rebounds, making 3 of 5 shots from the 3-point line. Bolton also had 16 points for the Zags.

Pacific reserves Jordan Ivy-Curry and Nick Blake led the Tigers with 17 and 16 points, respectively.