Disruptive Gonzaga forces 19 turnovers, gets 25 points from Graham Ike in comfortable 86-65 win over Bucknell

It probably wasn’t everything Mark Few had on his wish list, but Gonzaga’s home nonconference finale against Bucknell served the only purpose it needed to before Bulldogs players began a brief holiday break.

For long stretches, Gonzaga’s offense didn’t operate with the level of urgency or efficiency many have grown accustomed to, but Graham Ike scored at least 20 points for the second straight game since a three-point outing against Connecticut, and the Bulldogs were disruptive enough on the defensive end to win 86-65 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Ike was the primary source of offense early, scoring the Bulldogs’ first nine points, and that didn’t change much throughout the evening. The senior forward did most of his work inside, but switched it up from time to time, hitting a series of fallaway jumpers, midrange shots as well as one 3-pointer to reach his second-highest total of the season with 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field along with 10 rebounds.

“I think the biggest thing is he kind of took what they gave him,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of Ike. “Look, they chose not to guard our bigs and just sag off them and basically dare them. I thought, for the most part, we took the right number of 3s and right number of shots, but also found some paint touches and were able to play out of those.

“I liked our defense a lot tonight, especially in that first half our numbers were really good. The start of the second half was really good, then we let them get going a little bit from 3 there.”

Gonzaga’s efficiency numbers on offense improved in the second half, when the Bulldogs made 7 of 17 shots from the 3-point line, but Ike and the defense were reliable all night.

Bucknell, a team averaging just 59 points in its past five outings, wasn’t on pace to hit that mark after the first half, when Gonzaga forced the Bison into 14 of their 19 turnovers.

The visitors went through a 3-minute, 28-second scoring drought early in the game, then had two other dry spells that lasted 2:55 and 3:16 later in the first half.

“Just making plays on the defensive end,” GU senior guard Nolan Hickman said. “Coach has been preaching that these past weeks, just making sure we’re getting stops and deflecting the ball and just making plays on the ball on the defensive end.”

Bucknell’s longest stretch without a basket arrived at the start of the second half, when the Bison went 4:45 seconds without scoring before Brandon McCreesh pulled up for a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.

The 19 turnovers forced by Gonzaga were the second-highest total of the season after UMass Lowell committed 25 during a 113-54 loss at the Kennel in mid-November.

“We were trying to get up and pressure the ball as much as we could,” Few said. “I didn’t think we did a great job against Nicholls the other night, but again Nicholls is quick, so we’re kind of gapping them a little bit. But yeah, by and large I thought we did a nice job of that.”

Ben Gregg was Gonzaga’s second-leading scorer with 15 points, constantly taking advantage against a Bucknell zone defense designed to leave the opponent’s “4” open on the perimeter most possessions. Gregg went 3 of 7 from the 3-point line, matching his career high for 3s attempted.

“Some of the zones were ones we hadn’t seen – I’d never seen it before where they just don’t guard two people and stand in there,” Few said. “… People like to kind of junk it up and try everything against us, and it takes awhile to kind of get your rhythm, get your feel an especially when that first one doesn’t go in maybe for one of those guys. But Ben did a nice job of hanging with it and Mike (Ajayi) was making plays around the rim, so by and large the whole group did a nice job.”

Hickman overcame cold first-half shooting to finish with 14 points – 11 in the second half – on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 4 of 8 from the 3-point line. Ryan Nembhard had nine points, nine assists, six rebounds, four steals and four turnovers.

The Zags (9-3) close out nonconference play on Saturday against No. 18 UCLA (10-2) at the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

The Bruins had won nine consecutive games before losing to North Carolina 76-74 on Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City.