Led by low-post tandem of Huff and Ike, Gonzaga overcomes slow start to beat Nicholls State 102-72
Gonzaga fans who watched Wednesday’s game against Nicholls State from the opening tip probably grew frustrated seeing the Bulldogs struggle with many of the same issues that surfaced in recent losses to Kentucky and Connecticut.
Another slow-starting Gonzaga team trailed for 11 minutes, 25 seconds in the first half, but the 13th-ranked Bulldogs made the necessary tweaks and the product on the floor improved drastically with roughly 7 minutes to play in the opening half.
Those who tuned into Wednesday’s broadcast at that juncture saw the Zags score 20 of the final 24 points in the first half, take a 14-point lead into halftime and eventually reach the century mark for the third time this season in a 102-72 win over Nicholls State at McCarthey Athletic Center.
“It just feels good to get back in the win column,” sophomore forward Braden Huff said. “It’s been awhile since we’ve played in the Kennel. Students weren’t here, so it was a little different, but just to be back and get back in the win column was big for us. We’ve got to take care of business Saturday now.”
A late-arriving winter break crowd, a lethargic Gonzaga team that hadn’t played at home in four weeks and a confident Nicholls State group coming off five straight victories likely all had roles in the way things played out early on.
The Bulldogs held the lead at 5-2 before giving up an 11-0 run to the Colonels, who mostly capitalized on a slew of turnovers from a Gonzaga team that was averaging only 9.1 per game – tied for the eighth-lowest total in the country – entering Wednesday.
Gonzaga coughed the ball up eight times inside the first 12 minutes of the first half and an opportunistic Nicholls team turned those errors into 13 points at the other end. The Zags didn’t wait until halftime to address the turnover issues, only giving the ball away once during the decisive 7-minute stretch to close the half.
Without those same transition opportunities, Nicholls State’s offense went cold, and the Colonels made just two field goals through the final 7:11 while the Zags manufactured 20 points during that same stretch to lead 43-29 at halftime.
Scoring production came from a variety of sources, but Gonzaga’s low-post tandem of Graham Ike and Braden Huff, along with point guard Ryan Nembhard, carried the Bulldogs much of the evening.
Huff came one point shy of a career high, scoring 25 points on 11-of-12 shooting from the field. Ike responded from a three-point outing against UConn by scoring 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 7 of 7 from the free-throw line.
Nembhard was Gonzaga’s third-leading scorer with 18 points and added 10 assists for his fifth double-double this season, but also matched his season high with five turnovers. Nolan Hickman also finished in double figures for GU with 11 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Dusty Stromer and Ben Gregg scored 10 points apiece.
“Coaches were harping all week, be physical down there, fight for your position and be aggressive to score, quick moves,” Huff said. “We were looking for our stuff early and then obviously running the floor, too. Kind of once you’re able to see a couple go on, that makes things easy. Defense collapses, kick out to shooters.”
Huff, Ike and Nembhard had no trouble scoring on their own , but Nicholls State made it easy on those three at times, sending them to the free-throw line 14 times. Those three didn’t miss on a night that saw the Bulldogs make 24 of its 27 free throws. Gregg had a number of opportunities from the line as well, making 6 of 7.
Gonzaga had 27 free-throw opportunities to Nicholls State’s 11, and the Bulldogs controlled the glass, outrebounding the Colonels 43-27. Gonzaga also had overwhelming advantages in paint points (52-28) and bench points (48-16) during its eighth win of the season.
Gonzaga (8-3) will host Bucknell (4-7) on Saturday in its final home nonconference game before traveling for a Dec. 28 game against No. 18 UCLA at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.