SPOKANE – Kevin Pangos scored 21 points to lead Gonzaga to a 78-59 victory over Loyola Marymount on Saturday night.
Coming off a game in which the freshman guard scored 27 points, Pangos made five of his seven 3-point shots in his 8-of- 12 shooting from the field.
Elias Harris scored 17 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for Gonzaga (20-4 overall, 10-2 West Coast Conference), and Guy Landry Edi and Robert Sacre added 13 points apiece.
“I thought we played great again. We came out with good toughness,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “Loyola is a really, really tough, hard-nose team. We did a nice job matching that coming out. We did a nice job on the glass, moving the ball around on offense and just playing good on both ends of the floor.”
Anthony Ireland and Drew Viney were the only two Lions (16-10, 9-4) to score in double figures. Viney led LMU with 24, and Ireland had 23.
Gonzaga led by as many as 24 points in the second half. The Zags made 53 percent of their shots while holding LMU to 39 percent.
Few was pleased with the way the Bulldogs came out and established the tempo early, racing to a 15-5 lead in the first five minutes and taking a 40-30 halftime lead.
“That’s just how we play. That’s us. We love to get up and down. Loyola likes to get up and down,” Few said.
Few thought the Bulldogs did about as good a job as possible in defending Viney and Ireland.
“I think we made them take tough shots for the most part,” Few said, “but they are very gifted and they hit a lot of tough ones.”
The Bulldogs go back on the road next week, visiting Santa Clara on Thursday and San Francisco on Saturday.
“That’s a good sign. We got to bottle it up and take it on the road now,” Few said. “Last year we lost both games down at these places so we’ve got to bottle up this energy, toughness and efficiency and take it with us on the road.”
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