No. 1 Gonzaga overwhelms San Diego in 96-38 thrashing
Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 23, 2017
By Bernie Wilson
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — These blowouts never get old for No. 1 Gonzaga.
The Bulldogs had their biggest yet on Thursday night, overwhelming San Diego 96-38 to improve to 29-0 and clinch the West Coast Conference title. Josh Perkins and Jordan Mathews scored 15 points apiece, and Johnathan Williams had 14 points and a career-high 19 rebounds.
The 58-point victory margin was the biggest of the season for Gonzaga, which also has won games by 47, 46 and 39 points. It was just two points short of the school record.
“It’s tough to be flat with a full house and we were playing for an outright league championship tonight so I thought the guys were really focused and came out with the right approach,” coach Mark Few said.
“It’s been like this all year. We have just not shown up flat or not paid the proper attention to our opponent. It’s the best we have ever been since I have been coaching here, as far as night in and night out doing what we have to do.”
Few is in his 18th season.
“You just want to get the win, and however much that is, you’re going to take it,” Perkins said.
It was merely the latest laugher for Gonzaga, the only unbeaten team in Division I. It has won all 17 conference games by double digits.
Nigel Williams-Goss scored 14 points and Zach Collins had 12 for Gonzaga.
Olin Carter III scored 15 for USD (12-17, 5-12), which has lost six straight and 39 of its last 42 games to Gonzaga.
Gonzaga so dominated that it jumped to an 11-0 lead while USD missed its first 10 shots, five of them 3-pointers. Juwan Gray finally ended the drought with a 3-pointer some 6 1/2 minutes in.
All those missed USD shots led to easy rebounds for the Bulldogs, who finished with 51 to USD’s 20.
Helpless against Gonzaga’s strong inside game, the Toreros were mostly relegated to tossing up 3s, and air-balling a handful.
It was so bad for USD that Cameron Neubauer air-balled a layup. Apparently thinking it was going to get blocked, he short-armed it and missed badly.
“Our coaches do such a great job preparing us and getting us ready for whatever the team can throw at us, and when we follow the scouting report that we did tonight, I think we’re a really good defensive team,” Perkins said.
The Toreros continue to have growing pains in coach Lamont Smith’s second season.
“We learned tonight that when things don’t go our way, when shots don’t fall, we still got to stay with our game plan,” Smith said. “When you don’t make the first 10, it affects your defense. Then that just snowballed.”
