Gonzaga Basketball: Bulldogs roll through San Francisco

By Stuart Gill | Jan 6, 2017

Dec 1, 2016; Spokane, WA, USA; Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils guard Kylan Phillips (11) goes up agaisnt Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Nigel Williams-Goss (5) during the second half at McCarthey Athletic Center. The Bulldogs won 97-63. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports /

Gonzaga basketball continued their best start to a season in school history by beating the San Francisco Dons.

The unbeaten 5th ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs rolled through the San Francisco Dons on the road, winning 95-80 on Thursday evening.

Early on, the Bulldogs slowly built a lead by moving the ball to their 7’1” center Przemek Karnowski in the paint. An early foul on San Francisco’s Matt McCarthy allowed Karnowski to go to work on true freshman Jimbo Lull, who was able to secure rebounds but struggled to keep Karnowski from hitting jump hooks and easy lay-ups.

Karnowski would finish 5-of-6 from the floor for 10 points, but it was Nigel Williams-Goss who took control of the game and pushed the Zags to victory.

Williams-Goss scored 36 points to go along with 11 rebounds and six assists on the evening, marking the first time this season a Division I player has put up a stat-line of at least 35 points/10 rebounds/5 assists. He hit 80 percent of his 15 attempted shots, including 3-of-4 three-pointers. He also went 9-of-9 from the free-throw line.

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For the Dons, freshman shooting guard Jordan Ratinho dropped 20 points on 66 percent shooting. Sophomore Nate Renfro added 13, while the Dons’ bench chipped in 34 combined points in the loss. San Francisco failed to shoot 3’s with the precision that they have become accustomed to so far this season, as they hit just 7-of-29 attempts, with three of those makes coming from Ratinho.

The Bulldogs began to pull away with 10 minutes left in the second half as Josh Perkins found Williams-Goss for a 3-pointer to extend their lead to 17. San Francisco continued to pull up from beyond the arc, but couldn’t get much to drop as the lead continued to grow.

Gonzaga was up by 22 just after the last media timeout of the evening before putting in their reserves for the remainder of the contest.

Gonzaga is beginning to look better every game and they will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in March should they continue to execute at such a high level.

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Williams-Goss has proven that he is what Gonzaga teams of the past had been lacking. The talented, consistent scorer, who takes pressure off the rest of his teammates and finds them for open shots, has given Gonzaga a top-5 national ranking and 3-0 start to WCC play thus far. Should he continue to lead Gonzaga through the WCC without picking up a loss, he will undoubtedly become a more realistic candidate for the Wooden Award, for which he was named a candidate in the preseason.