NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates 
[ad_1]
Jan. 4—LOS ANGELES — Gonzaga’s past four games, played over a stretch of eight days, each warranted different letter grades on a traditional report card.
After stumbling Dec. 28 against UCLA, holding on for a narrow win against Pepperdine on Monday and cruising against Portland on Thursday, Gonzaga saved its most complete performance for last, earning passing marks across the board Saturday in a 96-68 win against Loyola Marymount at Gersten Pavilion.
In many of GU’s recent games, the Zags had been decidedly better in one half compared to the other. It would have been tough to choose on Saturday in a game that saw Gonzaga shoot 51% from the first half and 54% in the second while holding the opponent to 32% in the first half before forcing eight LMU turnovers in the second.
“They’re all different, right? Every game has a life of its own and the opponents are all different and all that,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “But this was definitely a complete performance, our defense was rock solid against a team that came in very confident. I mean they played great against Oregon State.
“I thought we did a great job there and then we stayed with it through the second half. I think we really did a good job of not giving them any easy 3s so they could really get going from out there.”
Doling out game MVP honors also would have been a challenging task on a night that saw two Gonzaga players exceed 25 points, another break out of an extended scoring slump and a fourth creep into triple-double territory midway through the second half.
Graham Ike, probably the top choice, finished one point shy of a season high, scoring 27 on 12-of-16 shooting from the field while making his only 3-point attempt of the game.
Another good option was Khalif Battle, who set a season high by scoring 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field and 4 of 5 from the 3-point line. Battle’s efforts on the defensive end also generated three steals, matching a season high.
Michael Ajayi added 15 points for Gonzaga,…
[ad_2]Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/gonzaga-puts-together-complete-performance-045900486.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2025-01-05 04:59:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
