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LOS ANGELES - Third-ranked Gonzaga jumped out to a 20-2 lead, scoring the game's first 14 points, to push them to a 72-55 win over LMU in West Coast Conference action at Gersten Pavilion Saturday afternoon.

"We will be more ready over time, but there is nothing you can tell them to prepare exactly what to expect, especially at the level of talent Gonzaga has right now," said Head Coach Mike Dunlap. "Only experience can teach you those situations. Gonzaga had gained that over time. The key to be calm, but they really jumped on us early."

The 20-2 lead happened in the first six minutes of the game, and from their the Lions (5-14, 1-6) played the Zags (18-1, 7-0) even, cutting the lead to seven on several occasions early in the second half. But the big early push was too much down the stretch.

Ayodeji Egbeyemi led the Lions in scoring for the second straight game with 14 points. Adding 11 points was Evan Payne and Petr Herman, which was a career-high for the freshman. Gary Bell Jr. led all scorers with 17 and Kevin Pangos added 16.

"We did a pretty good job of not giving up multiple shots. We held them to 43 percent shooting in the first half. You would like to keep it under 40, but that is hard to do against them," said Dunlap. "We did some good things, but we have had the pattern of going through stretches of not scoring. Obviously the start hurt us, but we had a stretch there, after cutting to seven, that hurt."

Gonzaga finished shooting 52.1 percent for the game, hitting 66.7 percent in the second half (12-of-18). They finished hitting 10-for-22 from three, including all four attempts from Bell. The Lions struggled, hitting just 29.3 percent for the game (17-for-58) from the field, and 23.8 percent from three (5-for-21).

The Lions out-rebounded a WCC opponent for the eighth time in nine games, out rebounding the best in the WCC, 38-33. Gonzaga entered the game with a +9.8 rebound margin. The Lions finished with 19 offensive rebounds. Herman led all Lions with seven total boards. Godwin Okonji, who entered the game second in the WCC in offensive rebounds, had five and finished with six total.

LMU will head to Santa Clara on Thursday, Jan. 22 for an 8 pm tip-off. The game can be seen on Comcast SportNet and on Time Warner Cable SportsNet.