Sacre perfect in Zags' rout

SPOKANE - Robert Sacre was perfect from the field and the free-throw line, scoring a career-high 24 points, and Gonzaga's torrid start helped the Bulldogs breeze past Pepperdine 92-75 Thursday night.

Sacre made all eight of his field-goal attempts and eight straight free throws for the Bulldogs (12-5, 2-0 West Coast Conference), winners of eight in a row. Lorne Jackson scored 18 points for the Waves (7-13, 1-2).

"Sacre was really efficient," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "We did a nice job finding him but he was very, very efficient and really did a nice job on making a simple play."

Steven Gray's back-to-back 3-pointers to open the game fueled a 10-2 start for Gonzaga, which made 18 of its first 24 shot attempts and finished at 63 percent. Sacre's jump hook with 4:26 left in the first half pushed the lead to 44-23. Pepperdine got no closer than 13 after that.

Gray added 19 points and nine assists and Elias Harris also scored 19 for Gonzaga, which has won 19 straight against Pepperdine.

"I liked how we came out especially defensively early," Few said. "I thought the first group had a pretty good mentality about getting after them and making it tough. Pepperdine can shoot it and add a lot of freedom so sometimes those teams are hard to bottle up."

Mychel Thompson scored 15 points and Taylor Darby 14 for Pepperdine.

Gonzaga hosts Loyola Marymount on Saturday.

"Loyola is really offensively gifted...They're just a real tough hard-nose scrappy bunch and they are healthy now," Few said. "This will be probably the first game they will play everybody."

PEPPERDINE (7-13)

Thompson 6-15 1-1 15, Darby 6-10 2-4 14, Moore 1-4 0-0 2, Jackson 7-11 1-4 18, Willis 0-0 0-0 0, Suttle Jr. 3-3 0-0 8, Bell 2-4 5-6 9, Lowery 1-1 3-3 5, Harold 1-2 0-0 2, Dupre' 1-2 0-0 2, Martin 0-0 0-0 0, Maehlen 0-0 0-0 0, Clardy 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-54 12-18 75.

GONZAGA (12-5)

Arop 4-6 0-0 9, Harris 8-9 0-0 19, Sacre 8-8 8-8 24, Goodson 2-5 0-0 4, Gray 6-12 2-2 19, Carter 2-4 0-0 5, Stockton 0-0 0-0 0, Olynyk 3-5 2-2 8, Monninghoff 0-2 0-0 0, Keita 0-2 0-0 0, Dower 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 35-56 12-12 92.

Halftime_Gonzaga 46-30. 3-Point Goals_Pepperdine 7-13 (Jackson 3-4, Suttle Jr. 2-2, Thompson 2-7), Gonzaga 10-18 (Gray 5-8, Harris 3-3, Carter 1-1, Arop 1-2, Monninghoff 0-2, Olynyk 0-2). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Pepperdine 23 (Darby 6), Gonzaga 27 (Olynyk 6). Assists_Pepperdine 12 (Bell, Thompson 3), Gonzaga 23 (Gray 9). Total Fouls_Pepperdine 12, Gonzaga 16. A_6,000.