SPOKANE — Gonzaga buried Oklahoma under an early barrage of 3-pointers and ran away with the game Thursday night.
Steven Gray scored 18 points as hot-shooting Gonzaga beat Oklahoma 83-69. Elias Harris added 15 points and Bol Kong 14 for Gonzaga (10-3), which had five players in double figures. The Bulldogs shot 50 percent and made 11 3-pointers, many on wide-open looks.
That included four 3-pointers as they built a 25-12 lead in the first 10 minutes.
“You can’t undervalue good shots,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “We shot the ball well from the 3 and from the free throw line, and that cures a lot of ills.”
Willie Warren led Oklahoma (8-5) with 19 points. The Sooners have lost two straight.
“We have a long way to go to be a good team,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said.
While the Sooners have a lot of young talent, Capel said that is not enough. He said his team did little well.
“Talent is overrated,” he said.
Oklahoma’s Tiny Gallon got the New Year’s Eve festivities off to an early start when he shattered a backboard in the second half.
Gallon went up for an alley-oop with 15:34 left in the game. The 296-pound Gallon missed the ball but grabbed the front of the rim with both hands. The force shattered the glass backboard, showering players and some fans with debris. Gonzaga was leading 59-41 at the time.
Gonzaga’s Robert Sacre said “I had to take a shower” to remove glass from his body during the 50-minute delay.
Harris scored 10 points as Gonzaga jumped to a 25-12 lead after 10 minutes. A pair of 3-pointers by Ray Willis helped Oklahoma cut the deficit to 37-30. But Gonzaga closed with a 15-4 run in the final three minutes for a 52-34 halftime lead. The Zags shot 67 percent and made nine 3-pointers in the first half.
The backboard delay didn’t seem to bother either team. Gonzaga went on a 12-5 run, six points by Sacre, to open a 74-54 lead with 9:19 left. The Sooners did not threaten after that.
Andrew Fitzgerald added 13 points for Oklahoma, which was outrebounded 33-25. The Sooners shot 50 percent and made eight 3-pointers.
Matt Bouldin had 12 points and eight assists for Gonzaga. His sixth point of the game lifted him past legend John Stockton (1,340 points) for 17th on Gonzaga’s career scoring list. Bouldin now has 1,347.
This is the second meeting between the teams. Oklahoma won in 2007 in Oklahoma City.
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