Ike, Battle propel No. 19 Gonzaga to 96-68 victory over Loyola Marymount

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Graham Ike scored 27 points, Khalif Battle added 26 and No. 19 Gonzaga rolled to a 96-68 victory over Loyola Marymount on Saturday.

Michael Ajayi came off the bench with 15 points for the Bulldogs (12-4, 3-0 West Coast Conference), who have won 11 straight true road games. Gonzaga has won 13th straight over Loyola Marymount on the Lions’ home floor.

Will Johnston had 18 points and Jevon Porter 17 for Loyola Marymount (9-7, 1-3).

Gonzaga led by double digits midway through the first half and kept extending its lead. The Bulldogs were up 46-28 at halftime and their largest advantage was 30 (96-66) late in the game.

Takeaways

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs ended up going 2-1 in their three games in Southern California. They lost to No. 15 UCLA 65-62 in a neutral-site game at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Dec. 28 before bouncing back with a 89-82 win at Pepperdine two days later.

Loyola Marymount: Caleb Stone-Carrawell scored nine and reached 1,000 career points in his 100th career college basketball game. Carawell is a grad transfer and is in his sixth and final year of eligibility and has 1,002 points. He previously played at Charlotte, Austin Peay, and Utah Valley.

Key moment

Johnston’s 3-pointer tied it at 7 before Gonzaga took control with a 9-2 run.

Key stat

Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard had 11 assists, the ninth time this season he has reached double digits. The senior leads the nation with 153 assists with only 38 turnovers. Up next

Loyola Marymount is at Saint Mary’s on Tuesday night, while Gonzaga hosts San Diego on Wednesday night.

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