Dixie State hung with the top-ranked team in the country in the early going, but No. 1/1 Gonzaga showed why it is the class of college basketball this season in handing the Trailblazers a 112-67 loss on Tuesday night inside the McCarthey Athletic Center.

The Trailblazers (4-2) matched Gonzaga shot-for-shot through the five-plus minutes. However after a Cameron Gooden 3-pointer pulled Dixie State to within a bucket at 18-16, the Bulldogs (9-0) rattled off a quick 12-2 run to race out to a 30-18 advantage.

The Blazers managed to keep the game in the 10-to-12 point range for the next few possessions, but Gonzaga rolled off another 13-2 spurt, as the Zags outscored DSU 27-14 over the final eight minutes of the frame to take a 63-38 lead into the halftime break. The Bulldogs would cruise on from there through the second half on their way to their ninth win of the year.

"Gonzaga is good and they're smart and they're tough," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "One thing we talked with our team about is what are the things they can hurt us with, we thought we knew what they were doing, but they still did it. I love how [Gonzaga] pushed the ball up the court and shared the ball, and that's something we have to work on.

"It was a fun experience for our guys," Judkins added. "I think we learned some things that we can do better, and we learned from what Gonzaga did so well. [Gonzaga] was patient, they don't shoot bad shots, they share the ball and find the open guy, and they shoot it."

Gooden poured in a team-high 20 points and played nearly the entire game for the Trailblazers, who were already without one starter and four other regular players heading into the game, and lost senior guard Dason Youngblood to injury early in the first half. In all, four Trailblazers tallied double figures as Jacob Nicolds finished with 11 points, and Jarod Greene and Trevon Allfrey (career-high) added 10 points apiece. 

"We've got to remember that this is our sixth game and chances to come up [to Gonzaga] to win are slim, but I thought we could've played better than we did," Judkins said. "I was happy with the effort, we played hard and just ran out of gas."

Dixie State shot 42.9 percent from the floor (24-of-56) and went 4-of-15 (.267) from the perimeter. DSU also hit on 68.2 percent (15-of-22) at the foul line and finished with 17 assists on its 24 made shots, including a career-high nine dimes from Brock Gilbert.

Gonzaga All-America candidate Corey Kispert led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting with four 3-pointers, while Joel Ayayi scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half to help stake the Zags to their halftime cushion. The Bulldogs shot 60.3 percent (44-of-73), 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from beyond the arc, and outrebounded DSU by a 38-29 margin.

"When you play a team like this you have to play the best game of your life to beat them, and it wasn't ours tonight," Judkins said. "You can learn from wins and you can learn from losses, and tonight we hope that we can watch the film and get better."

Dixie State will open the New Year with a home non-conference tilt vs. SAGU American Indian College inside the Burns Arena this Saturday night, Jan. 2, at 7 p.m. It will be the Blazers' final tune-up before they make their WAC conference debut vs. New Mexico State on Jan. 8-9.

DSU POSTGAME NOTES:
Dixie State had four players not make the trip to Spokane due to DSU Athletics COVID-19 protocols. The status of those four players ahead of this Saturday's game vs. SAGU-AIC will be determined later this week.
Gonzaga's 112 points and 45-point margin of victory are both DSU NCAA-era opponent records.
DSU's previous opponent record for points was 108 points set in a Trailblazer come-from-behind overtime win last season at New Mexico Highlands (W, 109-108; 12/13/19).
Prior to tonight, the worst loss in DSU's NCAA era came on the road at Chaminade by 37 points (61-98; 1/5/08).