Today Sean and Derek did a fantastic job of setting the tone for the game and hopefully the entire WCC season. In the Virginia game the Zags came out very flat, and the Zags could ill afford another such effort, and thanks to Mallon and Raivio’s early scoring outburst there would be no such performance today. Sean attacked the basket well inside all day long, leading to his 9-10 shooting and Derek hit some early three pointers to put the Zags ahead. Mallon also set the precedent on the glass by leading the team with 9 boards as Gonzaga out rebounded LMU by 15 rebounds. Derek did a fantastic scoring the ball, which he has been doing for much of the year, but even more importantly today Raivio set the example at the defensive end. Derek gave a great defensive effort, harassing the LMU guards and ending the game with 6 steals despite sitting out a significant amount of time in the second half once the Zags had buried the Lions. Raivio also broke the school’s all time consecutive free throws made streak, pushing the record, which he previously co-owned to an incredible 43 in a row. The collective dominance of Raivio and Mallon was great to see today, as they stepped up and led the Bulldogs to a huge victory when the team needed them the most.

While Derek and Sean were clearly the leaders of today’s blowout win, every Bulldog made significant contributions and hopefully the overall success will help the Zags regain their confidence and swagger which were badly wounded in the last few games. PMAC, Kuso, and Pendo all provided solid defense and effort, while Bouldin showed his all around game with 6 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. Maybe most importantly outside of Sean and Derek’s explosion was Josh’s effort on the glass today. Despite being limited by some early fouls and Gonzaga’s huge lead which led to him only playing 21 minutes, Josh still grabbed 8 rebounds and also got some shots to go down on his way to 10 points. Had the game been closer and he got more minutes Josh was well on his way to a double double, so it was nice to see him break out of the funk he has been in lately. Jeremy Pargo once again provided solid pressure at the defensive end and did a great job driving into the heart of the LMU defense to create for himself and his teammates on his way to an 11 point 7 assist day.

As a team Gonzaga brought much more energy and passion to today’s game. At one point LMU was seen as a potential threat to the Zags rule of the WCC and there was no doubt the Zags came out today wanting to send a message not only to LMU but the entire league that the last four games were an aberration and they plan on winning another league title. Gonzaga won the game on the glass and defensive end, holding LMU to 36% shooting and out rebounding the Lions 41-26. Gonzaga also shot the ball extremely well and passed nicely, as shown by the team’s 21 assists.

Despite the 35 point margin of victory and sheer dominance in today’s game Gonzaga still has many areas in which they can improve. The Zags continue to turn the ball over way too much, committing 19 turnovers again today against a fairly low pressure LMU defense. Another weak point continues to be the Bulldog’s half court offense execution, which is in part contributing to the high number of turnovers because the Bulldogs are having to create their offense instead of having the offensive sets create scores for them. The Zags spacing, attention to detail and sharpness of their movements are currently poor and must be improved drastically for the Zags to be successful in the long run because there are going to be many crucial points in the year when the team will be forced to rely on the offecnsive sets to get them good shots.

The Zags large victory was a good way to start the WCC season and begin to erase the disappointment of the previous four games, but the team must continue to bring the same passion, effort and high level of play to each game in order to win the league and secure another NCAA Tournament berth.