No. 4/5 Gonzaga (3-0) vs. San Diego State (2-0)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18 | 7:00 PM | VIEJAS ARENA | SAN DIEGO, CA
TELEVISION: CBS Sports Network
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RADIO | LIVE STATISTICS

THE OPENING TIP
– Gonzaga travels to San Diego State for its first real road game of the season on Monday at 7 p.m.
– The Bulldogs are coming off a 113-54 victory over UMass-Lowell on Friday. Six Zags finished in double figures led by Khalif Battles 21 points. GU forced 25 turnovers and held the River Hawks to 36 percent shooting from the field.
– Gonzaga returned to the Top 5, ranking fourth in the Associated Press poll and fifth in the USA Today/Coaches poll. The Bulldogs were last in the Top 5 at No. 2 in the first two polls of the 2022-2023 season.
– Ryan Nembhards 10 assists per game ranks second in the country after dishing out 30 assists in the first three games. The senior has two turnovers, both against Baylor. His assist-to-turnover ratio of 15.00 ranks second in the nation. GU ranks sixth as a team averages 22.3 assists per outing.

EXPLORING THE AZTECS
– San Diego State is off to a 2-0 start to the season after home wins over UC-San Diego (63-58) and Occidental (100-49). In the win over Occidental, five Aztecs finished in double figures led by Magoon Gwath, Wayne McKinney III and BJ Davis, who all had 16 points. Miles Heide grabbed eight rebounds in the game. Taj DeGourville had 14 points and five assists. SDSU made 18 three-pointers as a team.
– Miles Byrd scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the season opener, but missed the Occidental game with an ankle injury. Davis is averaging 13.5 points through two games, while McKinney and Nick Boyd are adding 10.5 points.
– San Diego State finished fourth in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll.
– Reese Waters and Pharaoh Compton were named Preseason All-Mountain West and Preseason Freshman of the Year,
respectively. Waters returns as the team’s leading scorer, rebounder and assists man, but is expected to be out until early January. Compton was the nation’s No. 80 player and is the first top 100 signee since 2005.

SERIES INFO
Monday will mark the sixth all-time meeting between GU and San Diego State, with the Aztecs leading the series 3-2.
– SDSU won last season in Spokane, 84-74, on December 29. Graham Ike led No. 13 Gonzaga with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Ryan Nembhard scored 15 points and had nine assists.
– The Aztecs stopped GU in the last meeting at Viejas Arena, 72-70, on December 22, 2017.
– Gonzaga won the first meeting 72-69 at the 1959 City of Roses tournament in Portland. The Aztecs won the second matchup, 79–76, on November 16, 2010, during the third annual ESPN Tip-Off Marathon. In the second game of the 2016-17 season, the Bulldogs earned a 69-48 victory in Spokane during ESPN’s Tip-Off Marathon.

NEXT
– Gonzaga returns home to host Long Beach State Wednesday at McCarthey Athletic Center at 6 p.m.
– It’s the fourth all-time meeting between the programs, but the first since a 90-55 GU win in Spokane on Dec. 20, 2002.
– The teams met in consecutive seasons in 1961-62 and 1962-63. LBSU won the first-ever meeting, 90-83, at Long Beach State. Gonzaga won the second meeting 78-74 in the 1962-63 season opener at the Spokane Coliseum.
– The Zags defeated CSU Bakersfield 81-65 in their final Big West Conference matchup last season.

SHARING IS CARING
– Ryan Nembhards 10 assists per game ranks second in the country after dishing out 30 assists in just two goals in the first three games.
– The senior’s last turnover came at the 12:05 mark of the second half in the season opener against Baylor.
-His assist-to-turnover ratio of 15.00 ranks second in the nation.
– GU ranks sixth in team average of 22.3 assists per outing and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.39.

B HUFF BE TOUGH
– Braden Huff has started his second season excellently. After scoring 14 points against No. 8 Baylor, he had a team-high 21 against Arizona State and then 13 against UMass-Lowell.
– All three appearances were off the bench and he made 22 of 35 from the field.
– The Illinois native recorded his fourth career 20-point game, with a team-high 21 points against Arizona State.

A LITTLE HELP FROM THE BANK
– The Bulldogs bench is averaging 42 points per game, which leads the West Coast Conference and ranks 17th in the country.
– The NCAA Div. from last season. 1 leader in bench points, Cornell, averaged 36.03 per game.
– The Zags averaged 19.1 bench points per game last season and reached 40 points off the bench in four games, with the last coming against Portland (42-11) on Feb. 7 and the most against Eastern Oregon (58-36) on November 14.
– GU had 48 bench points in the win over UMass-Lowell.
– Gonzaga defeated Baylor 42-19 in bench points.
– The 42 points were Gonzaga’s most against a ranked team in the past 20 seasons.
– The Bulldogs followed it up with 36 points off the bench against Arizona State (36-19).

THAT’S A LOT OF POINTS
– Gonzaga’s 302 points are tied for the second-most through the first three games of the season. The 2019-20 Zags also scored 302 points in their first three games.
– The 2018-19 GU team had 318 points in wins over Idaho State, Texas Southern and Texas A&M. They had 402 in four games.
-The Bulldogs have scored 302 points in 224 possessions.
– Seven players average at least 8.0 points per game.