NCAA basketball

It happens more often during the arduous segments on Gonzaga’s nonconference schedules, but the latest edition of the game before The Game arrives Wednesday for the Bulldogs.

In latest rankings, Arizona jumps after big win and Colorado slides.

Gonzaga moved up in the latest AP college basketball poll, ending five straight weeks of slipping in the rankings. The Zags (12-4) climbed one spot to No. 18 after opening West Coast Conference play with wins over Pepperdine (89-82), Portland (81-50) and Loyola Marymount (96-68).

SEATTLE – DJ Davis kept firing three-pointers and after each shot, the cheers from the Alaska Airlines Arena crowd to an earsplitting crescendo.

LOS ANGELES – Khalif Battle’s footwear selection initially caught the attention of assistant Brian Michaelson in a hallway near the visitor’s locker room after Gonzaga’s 96-68 victory at Loyola Marymount Saturday night. Two inquisitive reporters followed up to gather more information on the guard’s fashion choice during postgame interviews at Gersten Pavilion.

LOS ANGELES – Gonzaga’s past four games, played over a stretch of eight days, each warranted different letter grades on a traditional report card.

PULLMAN – During a break in the action, midway through the massive run Washington State used to complete a 91-82 win over San Francisco on Saturday evening, assistant coach George Galanopoulos turned to head coach David Riley.

Graham Ike scored 27 points, finishing one shy of a season-high, Khalif Battle had a season-high 26 points and Ryan Nembhard totaled 10 points, 11 assists and six rebounds to help the Zags secure their third victory of the week and second road win in West Coast Conference play.

A challenging four-game stretch in a week concluded Saturday afternoon for Gonzaga, and the Bulldogs capped it with arguably their best game so far.

MOSCOW, Idaho – The last time Idaho swept Montana and Montana State at home was February, 2018. The Vandals beat the Bobcats, 88-78, and sneaked past the Grizzlies, 79-77, in overtime, when Nate Sherwood made one of the memorable plays in Idaho’s basketball history and put back a baseline buzzer-beating tip in.

It was 10 minutes after the final buzzer, and most of the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team had made its way back out to Reese Court – except for Nic McClain.

From staff reports

Gonzaga forward Michael Ajayi caught up his former coach at Pepperdine, Lorenzo Romar, earlier Saturday. On Friday night, Ajayi and former Waves teammate Jevon Porter chatted on the phone. And roughly a half hour after Ajayi turned in one of his better performances of the season in Gonzaga’s 96-68 rout Saturday over Loyola Marymount, Ajayi and Porter visited again leaving the Gersten Pavilion court.

LOS ANGELES – Here are three observations from Gonzaga’s 96-68 win over Loyola Marymount on Saturday night at Gersten Pavilion.

PULLMAN – Every once in a while, when he’s trying to get his Washington State team hyped up right before a game, David Riley might pull out a note on the opponent.

LOS ANGELES – Gonzaga has a deep file on Jevon Porter, stemming from four previous matchups with the skilled wing in West Coast Conference play over the past two seasons.

LOS ANGELES – There aren’t many basketball teams around the country that will encounter a stretch of games as physically demanding or mentally exhausting as the one Gonzaga’s faced this week.

Ben Gregg has been here before as a starter and on the other side as a key reserve. He’s experienced it a couple times this season as well as last year. On Thursday, the fifth-year senior forward’s name boomed over the Spokane Arena’s public address system with Gonzaga’s starting five again prior to tip-off against Portland.

The Gonzaga women’s basketball team was on the brink of an all-out collapse - similar to the two overtime setbacks where it coughed up double-digit leads this season.