Graham Ike turns in third straight 20-point game to help Gonzaga cruise past Pepperdine 86-60

It was a 2-minute stretch during the first half that featured something the Zags have grown accustomed to seeing and something they haven’t seen nearly enough of in the past six games.

Gonzaga’s decisive run in the first half of Thursday’s West Coast Conference opener started with a pair of Graham Ike free throws. Pepperdine interrupted with a Houston Mallette 3-pointer, but GU’s scoring spurt continued on with six more points from Ike, all scored from the low block on three straight possessions.

A 14-2 run culminated when Ryan Nembhard rose up from the elbow and hit a 3-pointer, giving the Gonzaga point guard his first 3-pointer after missing 16 in a row dating back to the first half of a Dec. 5 contest against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

The 24th-ranked Bulldogs got another productive outing from Ike, busted out of a five-game 3-point-shooting slump and stifled the WCC’s top two scorers in a dominant 86-60 win over Pepperdine in front of a sellout crowd of 12,015 fans at the Arena.

On the heels of their fourth loss, a 73-63 setback last Friday against San Diego State, the Bulldogs held Pepperdine to 19-of-58 (32%) shooting from the field and limited the Waves’ top three players – Michael Ajayi, Houston Mallette and Jevon Porter – to 35 points on 8-of-36 (22%) shooting from the field. It marked the 46th consecutive win for Gonzaga (10-4) over Pepperdine (7-9).

“I think we came out with a bunch of energy and the defense was really, really, really good tonight,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “We were active, we were connected, physical around the rim. Those are kind of the things we stepped up on from the other night. I’m proud of them there. We did a great job in transition. Those are the things we went over.”

Ike’s first-half burst was just a small glimpse of another dominant outing from the Wyoming transfer forward, who had his third consecutive game of at least 20 points, scoring 20 on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line to go with seven rebounds.

The Bulldogs, who can expect to have an overwhelming edge in the frontcourt most nights in WCC play, racked up a 44-18 advantage in paint points and shot 32 of 57 (56%) from the field, including 16 of 26 (61%) in the second half.

“It’s really just my teammates looking for me,” Ike said. “I’m appreciative of that, but it’s just something we’ve been practicing over the last week, just dumping the ball inside and just asserting my will.”

After spending the past five games in 3-point purgatory, the Zags found success from the perimeter and made 8 of 19 attempts (42%) . It came on the heels of five consecutive games in which Gonzaga shot under 30% from the 3-point line – the longest stretch for any GU team in 25 years under Few.

Nembhard’s individual shooting slump ended after five consecutive games without making a 3-pointer and Nolan Hickman knocked down a season-high four 3-pointers – on five attempts – and had 14 points. Nembhard finished with 10 points, seven assists, two turnovers and two steals.

Hickman had been limited in practice since an ankle sprain the junior guard suffered in the first half of the loss to SDSU at McCarthey Athletic Center.

“He got banged up in the San Diego State game and was out of practice for a while,” Few said. “I thought he came out with just really good rhythm on his shot. He looked great, he was hunting it. These guys did a good job of finding him, I think Graham threw to him out of the post a couple times and we found him.

“He was on Mallette a lot. I think he gave us great defensive effort tonight, too.”

GU’s Anton Watson finished 6 of 12 from the field, scoring 15 points to go with six rebounds, three assists and one block. Zags freshman forward Braden Huff added 11 points and four rebounds off the bench in his WCC debut.

Ajayi, who entered the week as the WCC’s top scorer at 17.3 points per game, had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Waves but was limited to 3-of-15 shooting from the field. Mallette, the second-leading WCC scorer, had 15 points on 2-of-9 shooting from the floor. In his first start since returning from a leg injury, Porter scored only six points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field.

The Zags close out their three-game homestand on Saturday against San Diego .