Recap: Bolton's 20 guides Gonzaga past Pacific

Earlier in the week, Anton Watson and Andrew Nembhard admitted the susceptibility of overlooking an opponent when a marquee matchup against a bitter rival is on the horizon. They know the differences between Pacific and Saint Mary’s just like everyone else.

But they certainly aren’t going to show it on the court. Locked in as always, the Zags tamed the Tigers in Spokane on Thursday night behind Rasir Bolton’s 20 points.

“I thought Rasir was terrific,” Mark Few said. “I think what stood out the most was that he played with great pace.”

The win keeps some of Gonzaga’s (20-2, 9-0 WCC) most impressive runs of success alive. Along with the conference and home game stretch, it’s the 25th straight 20-win season for the program, the second longest active streak in the nation behind Kansas and North Carolina (tied with 31 consecutive). It’s also the 18thconsecutive victory over Pacific, which hasn’t picked up a win in the series since 1976.

For the Tigers (7-17, 2-7 WCC), they’ve now lost four of their five games in what has been a long week on the road. A frustrating loss to previously winless Pepperdine followed by a failed upset bid against USC had the Tigers gasping for their breath by the time they got to Spokane. Saturday’s game in San Diego will be the team’s fourth game away from home in seven days.

Here’s how No. 2 Gonzaga powered its way to an 89-51 win against Pacific:

PUT IT AWAY EARLY

No team comes more prepared than Mark Few’s squad on a night-to-night basis, and that was on full display Thursday. A special cameo from former All-American Jalen Suggs brought a little extra juice to the building, not that the Zags needed it of course.

“I know how excited I was to come back, and I know how happy I am to be here tonight, so it just feels good to feel the love,” Suggs said. “To know that I can come back to the warm welcome, it means the world.”

While Suggs had his fun with The Kennel Club, his old team got down to business on the floor.

Drew Timme kicked the game off with an and-one over Jeremiah Bailey in the first minute. Two scores from Rasir Bolton made it a 10-4 ballgame in the blink of an eye, and the Bulldogs were off and running. After knocking down a 3-pointer, Julian Strawther muscled his way to the rim to extend the lead to 13 points.

A 14-2 run over three minutes seized momentum for good, as the Tigers offense could not get anything going. Despite moving the ball away against the Zags defense, a 2-for-8 start from the floor was the shovel that dug them into an early hole. A turnaround jumper from Sam Freeman ended a four-minute scoring drought, but as many teams this season have learned, that’s too long without a basket against the best scoring offense in the country.

With time winding down in the first half, Holmgren snatched a rebound before pulling up from deep on the other end, knocking down his second 3-pointer of the night with Freeman’s hand right in his face. Gonzaga trotted into the locker room with a 46-28 lead.

KEEP THE FOOT ON THE GAS

An 18-point lead at halftime sure didn’t mean much to the Zags, who kicked off the second period on a 10-2 run behind 3-pointers from Bolton and Strawther.

Pacific, playing in its third game in six days, simply had nothing left in the tank as Gonzaga continued to pour it on. A missed 3-pointer from Hunter Sallis was recovered by Timme, who dumped it off for Nembhard to finish the play. The lead ballooned to 30 midway through the half after another second-chance bucket from Nembhard.

Later, Sallis capped off the night with a ferocious two-hand, put-back dunk after flying through the lane to clean up a missed 3-pointer from Strawther.

Defensively, the Bulldogs held the Tigers to 31.3% shooting from the floor. It’s the seventh straight game they’ve held their opponents to under 40% shooting.

“This is the first time I think our defensive numbers were better in the second half than they were in the first half,” Few said. “We kept it on them for a full 40 [minutes], so I was happy with that.”

LOOKING AHEAD AND POLL IMPLICATIONS

One of the WCC’s premier rivalries is renewed Saturday when the Zags host the No. 22 Saint Mary’s Gaels (20-5, 8-2 WCC) on Saturday at 7 p.m. Despite Tuesday’s loss to Santa Clara, SMC bounced back with an 86-57 home win over San Diego to remain in second place in the WCC. It’ll be just the seventh time ever that the Bulldogs and Gaels will square off while ranked inside the AP top 25.

And with a win on Saturday, we’ll see a new team atop those rankings.

Last week’s blowout win on the road against a top-50 NET team apparently wasn’t enough for the voters to rethink which team deserved to be No. 1 in the polls. If everything goes accordingly to plan for the Bulldogs, that’ll change come Monday. It might not mean much now, but Auburn’s loss to Arkansas allows Gonzaga to take control of its own destiny with just under a month until Selection Sunday.

Despite fewer quad 1 and quad 2 wins than the Tigers, the Bulldogs are No. 1 in the NET rankings as of Thursday.

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