By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
SPOKANE, Wash. – In a rematch of the 2021 national championship game dominated by Baylor, the sixth-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs borrowed a page from the Bears' playbook and knocked down 13 3-pointers in a 101-63 blowout in Monday's season opener at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.
 
Miami transfer Norchad Omier and freshman Rob Wright led eighth-ranked Baylor (0-1) with 15 and 12 points, respectively, and combined for nine points in a 16-4 second-half run that got Baylor back within 59-46 with 13:34 to go in the game.
 
But the Zags simply answered with a 16-2 run of their own that included back-to-back 3-pointers by Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman to push the lead back to 75-48 and were never threatened after that.
 
"I think it's fair to say, Gonzaga returning eight of (its top nine) looked like that," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "And us, with one returning starter, looked like that. "They really exploited our switching (on defense). And then offensively, we did a really poor job tonight. Three for 21 from 3 makes you a bad offensive team, because we had some good looks. And we've made more than that. But 11 assists, 12 turnovers and only eight second-chance points, that's not Baylor basketball."
 
Gonzaga (1-0) had five players in double figures, led by Hickman with 17 points and six rebounds. Forward Braden Huff scored 14 points to help the Bulldogs' bench outscore the Baylor reserves, 42-19, and combined with Dusty Stromer for every point in an early 12 run that followed the Bears reeling off eight unanswered points and taking a 9-8 lead. F
 
"Definitely, they're deeper than us right now, and their depth is experienced," Drew said. "They know what they're trying to do, and I thought we let the pace and tempo get away from us. Some bad offense, a lot of turnovers, led to some easy ones. And once they got that gap it made it really hard and kind of took us out of what we were trying to do. f
 
"Good teams have good bench play. And those are three really good subs (Huff, Stromer and Michael Ajayi) that are experienced and talented and know their roles. And we're still putting all that together."
 
Omier just missed a double-double, grabbing nine rebounds, while Josh Ojianwuna had 10 points, six rebounds and three steals. Also making their Baylor debuts, Duke transfer Jeremy Roach had nine points and freshman VJ Edgecombe add four, including a posterizing dunk, but they were a combined 4-of-20 from the floor and 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
 
"You've got to give credit to Gonzaga," said Omier, who was 5-of-12 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the line. "Great coaching, great players. They were exploiting the mismatch, and we couldn't figure it out. All we can do is learn from it and move on from here."
 
Gonzaga used early 8-0 and 10-0 runs to go up 18-9 on a Huff layup barely eight minutes into the game. The Bulldogs used another 7-0 run to build a 16-point lead, 34-18 on a floater by Hickman, who scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the first half.
 
Hickman knocked down a 3-pointer, the Zags' sixth trey of the first half, to push the lead to 49-28 before a pair of free throws by Roach cut the deficit to 49-30 at the break.
 
The Bulldogs shot 54.3% in the first half, including 6-of-16 from outside the arc, and also outrebounded the Bears, 23-17. Gonzaga got 19 first-half points from its bench in the first 20 minutes.
 
"For Baylor fans that stayed up," Drew said of a game that ended at around 12:30 a.m. central time, "I promise you, we will get better, and we will give you a better effort than this. As far as Gonzaga goes, I think they're going to have a special year, and I always cheer for them when we're not playing them."
 
In another difficult early-season challenge, Baylor will face 16^th-ranked Arkansas in a neutral-site matchup at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Razorbacks will open Wednesday night at home against Lipscomb.