Stellar Shooting by Kevin Pangos Leads Gonzaga Past Baylor

On Friday night, Gonzaga (12-1) point guard Kevin Pangos broke out of his shooting slump in a big way to lead the Zags to a 94-87 win over Baylor (8-4) in Spokane. 

Pangos netted a season-high 31 points, which included a 7-for-10 performance from three-point range, to power the Zags to their 12th win of the season. 

Before Friday night, Pangos scored over 15 points just once, which came on November 25 against Davidson.

In his last six games since the win over Davidson in the final of the Old Spice Classic, Pangos averaged a marginal 7.6 points per game. 

All of those past statistics went out the window when the sophomore from Canada took the court on Friday night.

In a battle between two of the best point guards in the nation, Pangos and Baylor's Pierre Jackson, the Ontario native was able to step up and silence any chance of an upset by the visiting Bears.

Pangos' domination at the guard position was not the only star performance for Mark Few's team against Scott Drew's Big 12 powerhouse. 

The combination of Kelly Olynyk and Elias Harris in the paint created plenty of trouble for their visitors.

The duo neutralized the strong Baylor trio of Rico Gathers, Cory Jefferson and Isaiah Austin by forcing them into foul trouble early. 

Gathers and Austin both fouled out of the game, while Jefferson played with four fouls for most of the second half.

Harris and Olynyk capitalized on the Bears' foul trouble by scoring a combined 38 points, 11 of which came from the free-throw line.

Baylor star Pierre Jackson had a team-high 26 points that was overshadowed by the foul trouble of his teammates and the impressive performance on the other end of the court by Pangos.

Jackson and the Bears will look to regroup from their loss in Spokane over the next week before starting Big 12 play on January 5th at home against the Texas Longhorns.

Gonzaga's difficult non-conference schedule comes to an end on Monday at Oklahoma State, as the Zags look for their fifth win against Big 12 competition. 

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