The Gonzaga men’s basketball team hosts Warner Pacific, an NAIA school from Portland, Oregon, in its final exhibition game before the 2024-25 regular season tips off.
The Bulldogs lost their first friendly against USC, 96-93, last week in Palm Desert, California. Arkansas grad transfer Khalif Battle led the way with 20 points as five Gonzaga players finished in double-figures for scoring. The scoring outburst wasn’t enough to overcome a hot Trojans squad, though, as USC shot better than 65% from the field in the second half to fend off a feisty Bulldogs squad that nearly overcame an 11-point deficit in the final minutes.
Mark Few and company used the exhibition format to experiment with rotation patterns, as 11 different Bulldogs suited up for the friendly against the Trojans.
“We were shuffling guys in and out of there,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said after the game. “Just trying to get certain guys minutes, Nolan was playing good … it’s what you need to do in an exhibition, man. We’ll figure it out. It’ll change throughout this year, we have a bunch of guys who are kinda all … bunched together, in the same [tier], not head-and-shoulders above each other. So there’ll be a bunch of that.”
The Bulldogs welcome a Knights squad that brought back just five players from last season’s 5-23 squad that finished second-to-last in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Four of those holdovers finished in the top six on the team in scoring though, led by junior guard Matt Solomon. The 6-foot-3 graduate student was an honorable mention at 18.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in 2023-24.
Here’s the live updates from Wednesday night’s exhibition from the McCarthey Athletic Center.
FIRST HALF:
Gonzaga 21, Warner Pacific 17 (11:57): A few live-ball turnovers led to easy baskets for the Knights, who started 4-of-9 from behind the arc after back-to-back triples from Terrin Dickey and Solomon. Gonzaga answered with a 3-pointer from Stromer on the other end.
Gonzaga 14, Warner Pacific 8 (14:59): The Bulldogs went into the first media timeout of the half with a 6-point margin over the Knights, as Hickman scored seven points early to get the ball rolling for the Zags. Matt Solomon drilled a 3-pointer out of the gate for Warner Pacific.
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