SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Drew Timme and Nolan Hickman scored 20 points each and the No. 9 Gonzaga men’s basketball team beat Santa Clara 81-76 on Saturday night.
Julian Strawther had 18 points and Ben Gregg grabbed eight rebounds to help the Zags (14-3, 3-0 West Coast Conference) get their 25th straight victory against the Broncos.
Gonzaga has won 48 of the last 50 meetings.
Gonzaga trailed by one with 90 seconds remaining, but outscored Santa Clara 8-2 over the final 1:14 to pull out the victory.
“We had to fight, and we had to dig,” Zags coach Mark Few said.
Hickman shot 8 of 9 from the field, with four three-pointers. His last three put Gonzaga ahead for good, 76-73, and started the game-ending run.
“That’s always a good thing, just seeing the shots fall,” Hickman said.
Keshawn Justice scored 22 points and Brandin Podziemski added 17 points and seven rebounds for Santa Clara (14-5, 2-2). Parker Braun had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
“We’ve felt good about our team all season,” Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek said. “Our guys battled tonight and put themselves in a position to have a chance to win.”
Santa Clara led by 14 points in the first half and limited Zags leading scorer Timme to seven points on 3-for-8 shooting before intermission.
“They’re good,” Few said of the Broncos. “They’ve got good size, and I thought their intensity tonight was really good. And their physicality was really good, especially in the post. … We did a good job of hanging in there.”