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Elias Harris had 16 points and 18 rebounds in leading 19th-ranked Gonzaga to a 96-58 win against South Dakota Sunday at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The Bulldogs improved to 3-0 while the Coyotes fell to 1-3.
Przemek Karnowski came off Gonzagas bench to lead all scorers with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Gary Bell Jr. (16), Sam Dower (12) and Kevin Pangos (10) also scored in double figures for the Bulldogs.
Casey Kasperbauer made five three-pointers and led South Dakota with 17 points. Juevol Myles had 12 points, five rebounds and five assists. Tyler Flack had 10 points, three blocks and three steals.
Gonzaga shot 57 percent from the field in the first half and took a 46-30 lead into halftime. The lead was 72-50 with eight minutes left. The Bulldogs closed the game on a 24-8 run.
Harris out-rebounded South Dakota by himself in the first half, 13-10. The team margin was 58-24 in favor of the Zags. Gonzaga out-scored USD 62-16 in the paint.
USD head coach Dave Boots post-game quotes:
On Gonzaga
We knew going in that physically, it was going to be difficult to compete with them. We got pounded on the boards. We played hard, made some nice plays and ran some nice sets that got us some good looks. The effort was there all the way through. It was just a tremendous basketball team we lost to today.
On the road trips to Wyoming and Gonzaga
This gets all our new players acclimated to what this is all about. We played good teams that were quick and athletic and then took on a nationally-ranked team that is really complete. This was one of the greatest atmospheres of college basketball and our team enjoyed that.
We enjoyed it when we made plays and we hung our heads a little bit when we didnt. We learned that we have to execute well as a team. We cant do things 1-on-1 and create shots on our own so we have to rely on each other and we did a pretty good job of that today.
On the successes of the day
If we can run our stuff against his team and score, thats encouraging because they make you earn everything. To get stops against them it had to be a great team effort. Now we got it on tape and we can head back to campus and make some adjustments.
Courtesy: Bryan Boettcher, USD Athletics
