No. 10 Gonzaga rebounds from loss, rolls past Mississippi Valley State 78-40

SPOKANE — Braden Huff scored 17 points, Graham Ike added 13 points and eight rebounds, and No. 10 Gonzaga cruised to a 78-40 victory over Mississippi Valley State on Monday night.

The Bulldogs (8-2) earned their 11th straight home win and bounced back from a 78-73 loss on the road to Washington last Saturday.

“Nobody was too happy with how things went (against Washington), so to get that bad taste out of our mouths and play 48 hours later was nice for us to kind of get this one done,” Huff said.

Ben Gregg added 11 points and four rebounds off the bench for the Bulldogs. Anton Watson had eight points, four rebounds and three assists.

Mississippi Valley State (0-10) was led by Rayquan Brown, who finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Brown was the only Delta Devils player who scored more than five.

The Bulldogs opened the game on a 14-2 run, making six of their first nine shots. Gonzaga went on another spree midway through the first half, scoring 11 straight points to expand its lead to 18, and led 38-18 at halftime.

Huff and Gregg had nine points each in the second half to help the Bulldogs go on several more scoring runs, including an 11-0 stretch to go up by 31 with 13 minutes left. Gonzaga led by as many as 41.

Gonzaga scored 36 points in the paint, but was just 5 of 24 from 3-point range.

“We’re taking the right shots,” coach Mark Few said. “It’s just shooting — you’ve got to take the right shots, do your prep and get your reps in.”

Mississippi Valley State shot 29.1% overall and was outrebounded 42-33.

REMATCH

Gonzaga returns to action Friday for a neutral-site game against UConn in Seattle. It will be the first matchup between the programs since the Huskies rolled to an 82-54 win in the Elite Eight of last season’s NCAA Tournament.

“You come to a school like (Gonzaga) to play big games like that,” Huff said. “It’s going to be a fun one. I’m excited to play them in Seattle in front of what should be a lot of our fans and hopefully we get a good crowd and come out with a lot of energy.”

BIG PICTURE

Mississippi Valley State: The Delta Devils are one of two winless teams in the SWAC. It’s been a brutal early slate with losses to Gonzaga, UConn, LSU, Oklahoma and TCU.

Gonzaga: The 38 points Gonzaga scored in the first half marked its second-lowest output this season. The Bulldogs shot 2 for 12 on 3-pointers before the break.

UP NEXT

Gonzaga faces No. 5 UConn in Seattle on Friday

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No. 10 GONZAGA 78, MVSU 40

MVSU (0-10) — Waldon 0-1 0-0 0, Brown 7-16 4-7 19, D.Sanders 2-10 0-0 5, Gipson 2-6 0-3 5, Minton 0-2 0-0 0, Reynolds 0-7 0-0 0, Washington 1-3 0-0 3, Clark 2-3 0-0 4, Hamilton 0-2 0-0 0, Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Umeh 0-1 0-0 0, Ivory 1-1 0-0 2, Mayhan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-55 4-10 40.

GONZAGA (8-2) — Ike 5-6 3-3 13, Watson 3-6 2-2 8, Hickman 2-5 0-0 5, Nembhard 2-5 2-2 6, Stromer 2-7 2-2 7, Seok Yeo 2-8 0-1 6, Krajnovic 1-4 1-2 3, Huff 7-9 3-8 17, Gregg 2-4 6-6 11, Few 0-2 0-0 0, Stosic 1-1 0-2 2, Brooks 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 19-28 78.

Halftime—Gonzaga 38-18. 3-Point Goals—MVSU 4-15 (Gipson 1-1, Washington 1-1, D.Sanders 1-3, Brown 1-5, Clark 0-1, Reynolds 0-4), Gonzaga 5-24 (Seok Yeo 2-6, Gregg 1-2, Hickman 1-4, Stromer 1-6, Few 0-1, Krajnovic 0-1, Watson 0-1, Nembhard 0-3). Fouled Out—Hamilton. Rebounds—MVSU 33 (Brown 9), Gonzaga 40 (Ike 8). Assists—MVSU 8 (D.Sanders 3), Gonzaga 21 (Nembhard, Stromer 5). Total Fouls—MVSU 19, Gonzaga 14. A—6,000 (6,000).