No. 9 Gonzaga short-handed but still potent, routs Seattle

No. 9 Gonzaga, missing its two leading scorers, dominated host Seattle in the second half and produced 45 bench points in a 71-50 victory on Saturday night.

After losing Braden Huff (17.8 points per game) to an injury earlier this week, leading scorer Graham Ike (18.1) showed up courtside in a boot on his right foot and was ruled out before the game.

Despite that, Gonzaga (19-1, 7-0 West Coast Conference) was led by bench standouts Mario Saint-Supery (20 points on 7-for-10 shooting) and Davis Fogle (13 points, 6-for-9). Saint-Supery recorded four 3-pointers and four assists.

Jalen Warley chipped in 14 points and six rebounds.

Seattle (13-7, 2-5) struggled shooting, making just 35.8% from the field (19 of 64) and 23.8% (5 of 21) from 3-point range. Brayden Maldonado scored 12 points but shot just 5-for-12 from the field, and Houran Dan added 10 points off the bench, sinking each of his four shots and two free throws.

After more than three minutes without a team making a bucket in the second half, Will Heimbrodt broke the stalemate with a layup for Seattle and later Dan powered home an and-one alley-oop to get the Redhawks within 34-29.

Gonzaga then poured it on with a 27-15 run that was capped by a Saint-Supery 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs their largest lead of the night to that point, 61-44 with 5:43 left.

Fogle closed out the stellar bench scoring with an alley-oop dunk to give Gonzaga a 67-46 lead with 3:11 left.

It was a slow start as it took nearly seven minutes for either team to hit double-digits. Saint-Supery hit a pull-up jumper to push Gonzaga to its biggest lead of the first half at 22-13 with 8:39 to go.

Tyon Grant-Foster made a nice cut and slammed home the final points of the half with 8 seconds left to give the Bulldogs a 32-24 into the break.

Saint-Supery led the way for all scorers with nine points in the first half to help the Bulldogs get ahead early.

The Redhawks struggled from the field, shooting just 34.6% and had nine first-half turnovers which led to 13 Gonzaga points.

Both teams struggled from behind the arc in the first half with Seattle shooting 23.1% and Gonzaga shooting 30%.

The Bulldogs destroyed the rebounding battle throughout the game and led 44-24.