Associated Press
SPOKANE — On a night when Josh Perkins became the career assist leader at No. 2 Gonzaga, the Bulldogs clinched a seventh consecutive West Coast Conference regular season title and kept the door open to a possible No. 1 ranking next week.
Rui Hachimura scored 23 points, leading four Zags in double figures as the Bulldogs beat Pepperdine and former Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar 92-64 on Thursday night.
“A conference title is one of the goals on our board at the start of the year,” coach Mark Few said. “It’s a heck of an accomplishment.”
“Everybody has their eyes on bigger prizes,” Few added, including a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
Perkins scored 10 points and dished out nine assists, giving him 670 assists in his career. That beat the record of 668 assists set by Matt Santangelo, the point guard on Gonzaga’s Elite Eight team that captured the attention of the nation in 1999.
“It’s a great accomplishment when you think of the phenomenal guards that have been through this place, going back to the greatest guard who ever played,” Few said in a reference to Gonzaga legend John Stockton, the NBA career leader in assists.
“Perk has great vision and makes great reads of ball screens,” Few said. “He delivers the ball to the right spot.”
Perkins called it a team accomplishment.
“It’s big-time,” he said. “It’s something you can’t take away. All the credit goes to my team.”
Zach Norvell Jr. added 21 points and Brandon Clarke had 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks for Gonzaga (26-2, 13-0 WCC), which won its 17th consecutive game, longest streak in the nation.
Darnell Dunn scored 16 and Jade Smith had 13 for Pepperdine (12-16, 5-9), which lost to the Zags for the 36th consecutive time dating to 2002. Colbey Ross had 12 points and eight assists.
“At times we did a decent job defensively,” Romar said. “And other times we weren’t guarding well at all.
“They are an incredible basketball team.”
Gonzaga shot 63 percent while holding Pepperdine to 38 percent to coast to victory. The Zags jumped out to a 21-11 lead midway through the first, using a pressure defense to disrupt the Waves.
Gonzaga opened the second half with a 15-2 run to go up 68-35.
Pepperdine went on a 21-3 run to cut Gonzaga’s lead to 71-56.
“We did what we could to claw back,” Romar said.
But the Zags replied with a 12-2 run to push the lead back to 25 at 83-58 with five minutes to go.
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