No. 15 Gonzaga held New Mexico State without a field goal for the final 11:23 Saturday on its way to a 109-68 romp in Spokane, Wash.
The Bulldogs (2-0) broke open a close game by starting the second half with an 8-0 run and adding an 18-0 spurt down the stretch.
Davis Fogle scored 22 points, matching his career high set in the season opener against Purdue, and added six assists. Isiah Harwell also scored 22 points and grabbed five rebounds for Gonzaga. Braden Huff scored 20, Javon Bennett added 13 and Massamba Diop posted 12 points and seven rebounds. Xaivian Lee handed out 10 assists.
The Bulldogs shot 61.3% from the floor and made 13 of 24 3-point attempts, including 4 of 6 by Harwell. They allowed the Aggies to shoot 55.6% in the first half but just 28.6% in the second.
Mark Lavrenov had 19 points, while DJ Dudley and Jae’Coby Osborne scored 10 apiece for New Mexico State (1-1), which committed 19 turnovers to just six by the Bulldogs.
With Gonzaga ahead 77-62, Fogle’s fastbreak layup with 9:27 remaining launched the 18-0 run. Harwell poked the ball away from a pass near midcourt and took it the other way for a thunderous dunk to give the Bulldogs a 20-point lead at 83-62.
Harwell added a 3-pointer and two layups during the run before Bennett fed Diop for an alley-oop dunk that punctuated the stretch and made it 95-62.
New Mexico State missed its final nine field-goal attempts and committed 10 turnovers in the final 11 minutes.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Fogle gave the Bulldogs a 19-8 lead early, but New Mexico State pieced together a 10-1 run while Gonzaga endured a field-goal drought of nearly 3 1/2 minutes. Dudley scored five points and Jermaine Washington added a three-point play during that stretch.
The Aggies drew within one point twice, the latter time at 24-23. Huff answered with a three-point play to give Gonzaga some breathing room.
New Mexico State kept pace and nearly made it a one-possession game at halftime, but Bennett knocked down a jumper with four seconds left to give Gonzaga a 47-42 lead at the break.
Ignited by Harwell’s 3-pointer on their first possession, the Bulldogs scored the first eight points of the second half, forcing the Aggies to call a timeout.
Washington’s 3-pointer got the Aggies within 71-60 with 11:23 remaining, marking their final field goal of the game.
–Field Level Media
