Zags stretch home unbeaten streak to 72 games
SPOKANE, Wash.– Drew Timme scored a season-high 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and No. 11 Gonzaga beat Montana 85-75 on Tuesday night for its 72nd straight home victory.Gonzaga’s home winning streak is tied with UNLV(1974-78)for the ninth-longest in NCAA history. It’s the longest streak because the growth of the NCAA competition in 1985 and since Lamar’s 80-game run from 1978 to ’84.”That’s insane,”Timme stated
.” Certainly, that’s something that no one can truly say they have actually ever done. It’s a testimony to Coach [Mark Few] and how he’s ran the ship and he’s always consistent. We didn’t have ‘The Kennel’ today and this place was still rocking.”
1 Associated Texas Tech has the second-longest active home winning streak in the country at 27 games.Timme started 4-for-9 from the free toss line but went 4-for-4 down the stretch to seal the game after a late Montana rally. The Grizzlies cut a 17-point second-half deficit to five with 3:06 to use Josh Bannan’s jumper however couldn’t get any closer. “[
Timme] made some big free throws and just like all year, we’ve been running whatever through him practically,” Couple of stated. “A great deal of our offense is generated through throwing it in to him.”
Gonzaga (10-3) made up for a poor first half from 3-point variety by making 40% of its 3-point efforts in the second half to hold back the Grizzlies (6-6).
Ben Gregg and Malachi Smith integrated for 20 of Gonzaga’s 22 bench points in the 2nd half to ignite its offense.
“My confidence has actually never fluctuated,” Smith stated. “I understand what I’m capable of doing and I go out there every game simply trying to win.”
The Zags held a 33-27 advantage in rebounding and turned 12 Montana turnovers into 17 points in the first matchup since a near upset in 2015.
Bannan scored 19 points and Brandon Whitney included 15. Dischon Thomas scored 15 points– all in the second half– to keep the Grizzlies within striking range before fouling out.Montana made
4 of its first five 3-pointers to jump on Gonzaga early however completed the last 6:20 of the very first half without a field goal. Gonzaga closed on a 13-3 run to remove an early eight-point Grizzlies lead.
“We simply had too many lulls where we didn’t get excellent shots,” Montana coach Travis DeCuire said. “First half type of put us in a hole and after that same thing in the 2nd half … when our pace is excellent we get easy offense.”