What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after Nicholls game

The Bulldogs pulled away from the Colonels following a sluggish first half

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

The Gonzaga Bulldogs overcame a sluggish start Wednesday night to get back in the win column with a 102-72 rout of the Nicholls Colonels at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Coming off back-to-back losses, the Zags didn't exactly play with a sense of urgency out of the gate. The Colonels jumped out to an 11-5 lead after Gonzaga started 1-for-5 from the field and committed three turnovers on its first eight possessions. A transition score from Nolan Hickman sparked the Kennel crowd, only for it to fall quiet while the home team struggled to string together a few productive possessions in a row over the next few minutes.

"I think we're a little lethargic and obviously playing a team that's excited to play," Mark Few said of his team's start after the game. "And I think their handsiness kind of shocked some of our guys."

Then, a switch flipped. Braden Huff came off the bench and scored six straight points, sparking a 17-2 scoring run from the Bulldogs. Michael Ajayi, though not much of a factor offensively against Nicholls, logged some good minutes defensively toward the end of the first half, as the Colonels missed seven of their final eight field goal attempts after Gonzaga's 6-foot-7 forward checked in around the 5 minutes mark.

The Zags rode their momentum into the second half, eventually pulling away late behind a season-high 25 points from Huff. Graham Ike bounced back with 20 points and six rebounds, while Ryan Nembhard recorded his sixth double-double in an 18-point, 10-assist outing for the senior.

Here's more from Gonzaga's head coach after the game.

On Braden Huff's big night:

"He's one of those guys when you throw him in a game like that, he gets it. Fives were kind of the hot receiver tonight, and he understands that, and he's gonna put the ball in the hole for the most part. He struggled a little bit the other night [against UConn], but for the most part, he's gonna put it in the hole if he gets time. He's got great hands, and I also thought he was pretty good defensively, too."

On the Bulldogs' red-hot second half:

"[Nicholls is] a pressure team, and so it's hard to swing the ball. It's hard to actually run offense against them. So I think our guys settled in and did a better job of looking through that, finding the cutter, finding the slip guy, finding the post. And our posts were actually posting up for the most part, wanting the ball in there. So I mean [we] ended up shooting a high percentage, given that we shot a lot of layups and a lot of things around the rim. But we made some nice 3s too, I thought our guys stepped up in the second half, especially, it's good to see Dusty make a couple. Nolan made a couple. Those are all good signs moving forward."

On Gonzaga's balanced offensive attack:

"If it's not that guy's night, then the positive is there's somebody waiting to come in. Like Huff or Ike — fortunately, usually those guys, one of the two, it is their night. And one of the two, whether it's Nolan or [Khalif Battle], it's their night. Those "4s" have kind of been balanced each other out. When you look at the total production in each spot, it's pretty good. When you combine Braden and Graham, when you combine [Michael Ajayi] and Ben, when you combine KB, and whether it's dusty or KB and Nolan, it's pretty solid. So that's where the depth helps. Hopefully I can get Emmanuel [Innocenti] in there too. We're trying to just get him a little more comfortable on the offensive side of things, because he's so good defensively."

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