The Gonzaga Bulldogs and the San Francisco Dons meet Thursday in college basketball action from War Memorial Gym. Gonzaga is 12-3 overall this year. The Bulldogs beat Pepperdine in their last outing on Saturday. As for San Francisco, they’re sitting at 11-6 after a Saturday loss to San Diego. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Gonzaga was 5-3 after eight games this year, losing to Texas, Purdue and Baylor. The Bulldogs are on a seven-game win streak since, beating Kent State, Washington, Northern Illinois, Alabama, Montana, Eastern Oregon and Pepperdine.
In the Pepperdine game on Saturday, the Bulldogs took a 56-40 edge into the second half. Gonzaga hit a 55-48 run from there and won it 111-88. Drew Timme led the team on 35 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the victory.
Over on the San Francisco side, they started out the year on an 11-4 run. The losses in that time were to Davidson, Utah State, new Mexico and Texas-Arlington. Since then it’s been two more losses to Santa Clara and San Diego.
Matched up against San Diego on Saturday, the Dons were up 34-32 going into halftime. San Francisco was outscored 48-34 from there and lost 80-68. Khalil Shabazz was the top team scorer with 21 points and eight rebounds.
PICK: I’ll probably stay with Gonzaga. The Bulldogs made short work of Pepperdine in their last matchup, shooting a blistering 61 percent from the floor along the way. Gonzaga has scored 73 or more points in each out of this seven-game win streak, and they’ve hit 100 or more options in three of the last four games. That’s going to be tough for San Francisco to keep pace with—even though the Dons have hit 67 or more points in four straight outings. If Gonzaga gets going, I don’t think San Francisco will stick around for too long.