What Mark Few said following Gonzaga's win over Pepperdine

With its star big men out of the fold, Gonzaga turned to its plethora of perimeter players to knock off Pepperdine, 84-60, in a West Coast Conference affair from McCarthey Athletic Center.

No Graham Ike (ankle) and no Braden Huff (knee) meant no problem for the Bulldogs, who put together another impressive effort on the defensive end of the floor while leaning on a "small ball" lineup to get the job done.

Davis Fogle led the all-around effort with 17 points on 4-for-8 shooting, providing the Zags with some shot creation as they continued to figure out their offensive philosophy without their two leading post players on the floor.

Fogle's strong night was at the forefront of a bench unit that nearly matched Pepperdine's total output on the scoreboard. With Fogle pacing the charge, the Zags' reserves combined for 56 points, outmatching the team's seasonal average of 37.3 bench points per contest.

Tyon Grant-Foster and Mario Saint-Supéry helped create separation from the Waves too, as each chipped in 12 points and made four field goals. Noah Haaland, a walk-on from Rathdrum, Idaho, chipped in 10 points and four rebounds while shooting 4-for-4 from the field.

Styles Phipps paced Pepperdine (6-15, 1-7 WCC) with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting. The Waves were held to 22-of-58 (37.9%) shooting from the field, including 3-of-22 from 3, during their seventh loss in their last eight games.

Gonzaga's smaller lineups, which often featured players listed at 6-foot-7 or shorter, helped the Zags pull away from the Waves down the stretch of the first half, turning what was a back-and-forth affair into a double-digit margin by the time the two teams broke for intermission.

Despite having a size advantage, Pepperdine struggled offensively against the Zags' smaller and quicker rotation, resulting in a 4-minute scoring drought for the Waves late in the first half. Meanwhile, Gonzaga rode an assertive Fogle and timely steals throughout a 10-0 scoring run that was kick-started by a thunderous two-hand jam from the freshman with just over 7 minutes left in the half.

That was a microcosm of the final 10 minutes of the first half, as the Zags outscored the Waves, 25-6, over that stretch to take a 47-29 lead into the locker room. Gonzaga's bench had 31 of the team's first-half points, outscoring Pepperdine as a whole and showing off the Zags' deep rotation.

Gonzaga (20-1, 8-1 WCC) didn't take its foot off the gas in the second half, cruising to its 12th 20-point win of the season and its eight-straight victory to open league play.

The Bulldogs scored 19 points off 15 turnovers from the Waves and finished with 48 points in the paint without Ike and Huff in the picture. Gonzaga also won the battle on the boards, 42-34.

Ike was ruled out for the second straight game while wearing a boot around his right ankle. The 6-foot-9 forward missed Saturday's 71-50 victory over Seattle U due to ankle soreness.

Huff was expected to miss 4-8 weeks due to a knee injury he sustained prior to the Zags' road win over Washington State last Thursday.

Even without its stud frontcourt duo, Gonzaga was able to extend a few win streaks with Wednesday's result. The Zags improved their run of success over Pepperdine to 51 consecutive victories, the second-longest streak between Division I schools in men's basketball history (UCLA's 52 straight wins over Cal between 1961 and 1985 stands as the longest), and improved their record against the Waves under Mark Few to 54-2.

Gonzaga also pushed its winning streak on the season to 13, marking the program's longest such streak since the 2021-22 season when the Bulldogs rattled off 17 consecutive wins from Dec. 9-Feb. 24. The 13-game win streak was the fifth-longest active win streak in Division I.

The Zags will aim for win No. 14 in a row this Saturday as they host San Francisco (13-8, 5-3 WCC) in a 5 p.m. tipoff from the Kennel.

Here's what Few had to say after Wednesday's game.

On Gonzaga's balanced offensive attack

"Yeah, it's going to be different. It comes in a variety of ways, depending on the day. But I thought for the most part we figured it out, got to 84 points."

"It was a little bit smoother in the first half. But again, we had open shots. We just missed. We missed some really good looks in the second half."

On the team's depth coming through in a big way

"We've needed the depth now, and so now we're getting to see some guys and ... those are one of the probably better gifts some of those guys have [is] coming off the bench."

"Obviously, Davis really likes to get it up, and he can definitely put up buckets. Tyon does a good job attacking. Depending on what we're doing at that two spot, Mario is being really aggressive, which is good."

On his team's defensive effort

"Clearly this team, especially when we put some of those lineups out there, and we've been doing it all year; we can go defense to offense pretty good. And I don't think we were quite as good defensively as we were against Seattle U. I thought we were making some plays here and there, but we were just off just a tick here there, and Pepperdine did a nice job of isolating us and got some guys in the right spots."

On Noah Haaland's night and role with the team

"I mean, to be honest, he's been doing that the last two years, and he's very worthy of getting this time; he was just playing behind two All-Americans."

"This isn't an out of body experience. This is kind of what we've been seeing every day in practice. We have confidence in him. I think the players have confidence in him, and hopefully we'll see a lot more of him."

On Davis Fogle's performance

"He was good, he was aggressive. I really liked that play where he dumped it down to Noah at the end. I think he needs to continue to work on his playmaking, as well as just his scoring."

"He's one of our bigger guys, so he's got to step up and do a little better job on the glass for us."