Khalif Battle scored 16 points to lead No. 3 Gonzaga to an 89-73 win over No. 14 Indiana in the consolation bracket of the Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
The Bulldogs’ Nolan Hickman scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half, finishing with three 3-pointers. Michael Ajayi also scored 15 points, Graham Ike added 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and Ben Gregg contributed 13 points in 19 minutes off the bench.
Ryan Nembhard was the lead catalyst for Gonzaga (6-1), tallying 13 assists and five steals in addition to his 11 points. The Bulldogs bounced back from an 86-78 overtime loss to West Virginia on Wednesday, and they will oppose either Providence or Dayton in the fifth-place game on Friday.
Indiana (4-2) was led by 25 points from Oumar Ballo, including 19 in the first half. He sank 11 of his 13 field-goal attempts and added four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Mackenzie Mgbako added 13 points for the Hoosiers. Outside of those two, no other Indiana player scored more than six points.
The Hoosiers, who have lost two in a row in the tournament, will face either Providence or Dayton in the seventh-place game on Friday.
Gonzaga used a 21-2 run across 5:48 in the first half to stretch a two-point lead to 54-33 with 2:33 left before the break. Gregg scored nine points in that span, capping it with a layup and a 3-pointer.
The Bulldogs took a 57-39 lead into halftime, as Ballo had 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting in the frame.
The Zags stretched their lead to a game-high 23 points on a Nolan Hickman layup with 16:01 remaining, and they equaled that margin once more with 5:38 remaining. Indiana answered with an immediate 6-0 run to bring the deficit back to 17 and outscored Gonzaga 34-32 as a whole in the second half.
Gonzaga finished shooting 48.4 percent from the floor, hitting six 3-pointers on 20 attempts (30 percent). They outrebounded Indiana 42-27 in addition to outscoring them 23-4 in second-chance points.
The Hoosiers hit 45.8 percent) from the field, making four 3-pointers on 18 attempts (22.2 percent).
