PROVO, Utah -- Nobody could blame Gonzaga for buying into the hype.
The Bulldogs faced token resistance from opponents on their march toward a No. 1 ranking. They are within striking distance of claiming a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history.
Gonzaga is doing everything it can to reject the publicity. The Bulldogs are biting off the schedule ahead of them one piece at a time. Nothing will satisfy them except one thing -- reaching the Final Four for the first time and competing for a national title in Phoenix.
"Until we reach there, we're not satisfied," Bulldogs guard Nigel Williams-Goss said. "If we keep our end goal in mind and just try to keep getting better each day and each week, I think that's the best recipe for us."
Williams-Goss did his part to keep Gonzaga on that path Thursday night. He scored 33 points on 12-of-18 shooting, hitting several key second-half baskets to help the Bulldogs stay unbeaten with an 85-75 victory over BYU.
Johnathan Williams added 12 points and Josh Perkins chipped in 11 for the Bulldogs. Gonzaga (23-0, 11-0 West Coast Conference) won its school-record 23rd consecutive game to open the season.
T.J. Haws scored a career-high 29 points to lead the Cougars. Eric Mika added 15 points and 11 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season.
BYU (16-8, 7-4 WCC) trailed wire to wire, but the Cougars put together multiple second-half rallies to get back into the game. Each time Williams-Goss countered with baskets or free throws to snuff out the rally before it grew too dangerous for the Bulldogs.
"He just had a pace to him and a confidence to him to where every time we'd make a run, he had a pretty good answer," Cougars coach Dave Rose said.
After trailing 42-26 at halftime, BYU used a 9-0 run to cut it to single digits. The Cougars kick-started the spurt when Mika and Haws turned back-to-back steals into baskets on the other end. Mika finished it off with a pair of free throws, trimming Gonzaga's lead to 45-37.
Williams-Goss took over at that point and kept BYU from getting closer. He blew by defenders operating out of a trap defense for easy layups and mixed in timely jumpers for good measure. The junior fueled a 13-2 run by scoring five baskets over a three-minute stretch. He finished it off with baskets on back-to-back possessions to put the Bulldogs up 58-40 with 12:48 remaining.
Haws led another rally later in the half. He drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to help BYU cut Gonzaga's lead back to single digits. The Cougars trailed 76-70 after Mika banked a short jumper off the glass with 2:01 left.
That was as good as it got for BYU. Williams-Goss and Collins each added a pair of free throws to stretch the lead back to 80-70 going into the final minute.
"I just tried to assert myself," Williams-Goss said. "I kind of thought we had some lulls, a few possessions where we weren't really getting good shots or turning the ball over. So I just tried to be aggressive. Josh (Perkins) and some other guys just kept telling me to be aggressive, so I just tried to do what I could to help the team."
Gonzaga controlled the glass through both halves, outrebounding the Cougars 47-34. It helped the Bulldogs finish with a 36-26 advantage in points in the paint.
BYU had no answer for Gonzaga around the basket and couldn't figure out how to slow down the Bulldogs on the perimeter until it was too late.
"The combination of the depth of their guard line and the size and strength of their front line just really caused us problems on both ends," Rose said. "It's a good team. A really good team. Our guys competed hard and played hard. Our execution needs to be way better to beat a team like that."
Gonzaga shook off a sluggish start by getting things cooking from the perimeter in the first half. The Bulldogs were 6 of 10 from outside before halftime, and a large percentage of those 3-pointers came during an extended run that buried BYU in a deep hole before the midpoint of the opening half.
BYU pulled within 9-8 on back-to-back baskets from Haws and Elijah Bryant. Then Gonzaga quickly raced away.
Jordan Mathews buried a 3-pointer to ignite a decisive 20-4 run.
The Bulldogs took their first double-digit lead at 20-10 behind back-to-back 3-pointers from Perkins. Williams-Goss capped the run with two free throws, putting Gonzaga up 29-12 with 9:18 left in the first half.
Once the Bulldogs grabbed control of the game, they kept making enough plays to weather everything the Cougars threw at them. It is what Gonzaga coach Mark Few has come to expect from this group week in and week out.
"These guys haven't bought into the hype all year," Few said. "We started this journey in September when we got them all together. We just need to get better every week and, I'm telling you, they have bought into that. Literally each and every week, we have a great couple of practices. We step up and hopefully perform a little better."
NOTES:
-- The previous three games in the series between Gonzaga and BYU were decided by a combined eight points.
-- BYU is 171-19 (.900) at home in Dave Rose's tenure. Since the 2005-06 season, the Cougars have the fourth-best home winning percentage in the nation.
-- Gonzaga led by an average of 11 points at halftime in its first 10 West Coast Conference games.
