Bulldogs with bite: Gonzaga storms out to big lead, powers past Georgia for 89-68 NCAA Tournament win

WICHITA, Kan. – After a few extended scoring runs from Gonzaga, Georgia briefly turned the momentum midway through the first half of Thursday’s NCAA Tournament opener.

Dakota Leffew knocked down a 3-pointer then scored again on the next trip down. Silas Demary Jr. went to the line for a pair of free throws. Georgia momentarily stopped the bleeding at the other end, stringing together four straight defensive stops.

It amounted to a 7-0 scoring run … that cut Gonzaga’s lead to 18 points.

It didn’t take long – five minutes at most – to determine which group of Bulldogs had more bite in Thursday’s NCAA opener. Eighth-seeded Gonzaga scored 27 of the game’s first 30 points, established a 25-point first-half lead and powered past ninth-seeded Georgia for an 89-68 victory at Intrust Arena.

“It’s one of the greatest feelings you can have in the world to advance in this tournament and to get to enjoy another 48 hours with this group of mine,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “So couldn’t be happier.”

Gonzaga’s 16th consecutive first-round NCAA Tournament win sets up a meeting with top-seeded Houston on Saturday at 5:40 p.m. The Cougars had even less trouble than the Zags on Thursday, rolling to a 78-40 victory over SIU Edwardsville.

Three-point shooting and swarming defense were the main keys to Gonzaga’s fast start. Georgia went four minutes, 10 seconds without scoring to open the game and the SEC Bulldogs were trailing 13-0 when Asa Newell converted a short jumper to put his team on the board.

Georgia’s next basket, a layup from Demary , didn’t arrive for another 4½ minutes, and only trimmed GU’s lead to 22 points. Gonzaga connected on 12 of its first 15 shots from the field and didn’t commit a turnover inside the first minutes. Georgia opened 1 of 11 from the field and had five turnovers before Gonzaga’s first.

“Gonzaga is really good. Perhaps underseeded,” Georgia coach Mike White said. “Anxious to watch their next game. They’re terrific offensively. They were prepared defensively. We got off to a really rough start with some live ball turnovers with them converting (baskets) and from 3.”

For long stretches, Georgia deployed a defensive strategy designed to get the ball out of Ryan Nembhard’s hands, routinely sending two defenders to trap the point guard as soon as he brought the ball past half court.

That opened up scoring opportunities and created clean 3-point looks for other Gonzaga players. Khalif Battle and Nolan Hickman capitalized the most, combining for 42 points – Battle had 24, Hickman 18 – while repeatedly punishing Georgia from the 3-point line.

Nine days after going 1 of 15 from the 3-point line against Saint Mary’s in the West Coast Conference Tournament title game, Gonzaga turned in one of its best shooting performances on the NCAA stage, making 12 of 20 from behind the arc – just two short of the program-record 14 3s GU made in 2021 against Norfolk State.

Hickman finished 5 of 6 from the 3-point line and Battle was 4 of 7. Braden Huff, Emmanuel Innocenti and Nembhard each added one 3-pointer.

“Hey, I wish we would shoot it like that every night,” Few said. “It would be awesome, and we probably wouldn’t lose. You know, that’s basketball. When shots are going in, it’s an old coaching adage, everything looks better.”

Starting alongside each other for the second consecutive game, bigs Huff and Graham Ike were Gonzaga’s other double-digit scorers on Thursday. Huff shot 8 of 11 from the field, pulled down eight rebounds and finished plus-34 in his 25 minutes. Ike shot 6 of 9 from the field and played through foul trouble much of the game.

The Zags had four double-digit scorers, led by 24 points from Battle, who finished 9 of 13 from the field, 4 of 7 from the 3-point line and had a season-high eight rebounds in his NCAA Tournament debut.

Guard Hickman scored 18 points and made 5 of 6 from the 3-point line, falling one 3-pointer short of his career high. Huff finished with 18 points and posted a plus-18 in his third career start. Ike added 13 points for the Zags.

Nembhard scored only three points and had five turnovers, but also dished out eight assists. With 333 assists on the year, Nembhard has one of the top five assist seasons of all time.

Gonzaga did a solid defensive job on Newell, who entered as the team’s scoring and rebounding leader. The freshman standout and former Gonzaga recruit scored 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 8 of 10 from the free-throw line, but Newell had three turnovers inside the first seven minutes as the Zags built a 20-point lead.

“The coaches, they went to work right after Selection Sunday, so they had a good plan in place how to defend him,” Huff said of Newell. “I mean, we recruited him here. He’s a really good player, really talented. Just limit his touches, try and be physical with him, make it as hard as possible. I mean, he still had a pretty good game, but just make it as tough on him as possible.”