Timme reaches 2,000 points, No. 12 Gonzaga tops Santa Clara

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Drew Timme scored 15points and surpassed 2,000 for his career, leading No. 12 Gonzagapast Santa Clara 88-70 on Thursday night.

Timme, who also had 10 rebounds, became the third player inschool history to reach the scoring milestone on a dunk with 16:02remaining. He needs eight points to pass Jim McPhee for second onGonzaga’s career scoring list. Timme also needs to average 18.9points during the next 10 games to surpass Frank Burgess for thetop spot.

“It’s kind of crazy, to be honest,” Timme said. “I hit thatnumber in high school and it’s pretty cool. It’s a lot of points.Like I’ve been saying all year, it’s super cool, but as long as wewin that puts a smile on my face.

“We can enjoy the milestones when I’m done here.”

After having its 75-game home win streak snapped against LoyolaMarymount, the Bulldogs (19-4, 8-1 West Coast Conference) relied onscoring in the paint and efficient shooting to extend their homewinning streak over Santa Clara to 15.

Rasir Bolton scored 16 points and Julian Strawther added 12 forGonzaga.

Carlos Stewart had 22 points for Santa Clara (16-8, 4-5).Brandin Podziemski was held to 14 points after scoring 38 againstPacific in the Broncos’ last game.

Santa Clara challenged early after Stewart’s 3-pointer openedthe game — but that basket gave Santa Clara its only lead of thenight.

The Bulldogs outscored the Broncos 28-4 in the paint and held aneight-rebound advantage in the first half. A 13-1 run midwaythrough the first gave Gonzaga a 16-point lead it wouldn’trelinquish. Anton Watson scored 11 points to pace the Zags in thefirst, finishing with 18.

“To be able to do that defensively to such a good offensiveteam, they showed in the second half what they were capable ofdoing,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I would definitely say it wasup there with some of our better halves.”

Bolton’s corner 3-pointer in the second half gave the Zags a22-point lead – their largest of the night.

“We had a really hard time throughout the game getting stops,”Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek said. “They were really executing andscoring at a high level in a variety of ways. ... Our offense got alittle better in the second half, but in the first half, theirdefense made it really tough on us.”

BIG PICTURE

Santa Clara: The Broncos have lost three straight and are tiedfor fourth in the WCC with Pacific with eight regular-season gamesremaining. Santa Clara hasn’t beaten Gonzaga in Spokane since 2007and the Zags have won 49 of the last 51 meetings.

Gonzaga: The Zags have won three straight games ahead of aSaturday matchup with No. 18 Saint Mary’s. The Gaels hold aone-game lead in the WCC and beat the Zags 67-57 last time theyplayed in Moraga, but are 2-8 in the last 10 games againstGonzaga.

UP NEXT

Santa Clara: At San Francisco.

Gonzaga: On the road at Saint Mary’s.