SPOKANE, Wash. -- Gonzaga coach Mark Few was looking for a hard-nosed opponent to schedule at home in December to toughen up his No. 8 Bulldogs.He found one in Akron.The Zips gave Gonzaga all it could handle before a late surge lifted the Bulldogs to a 61-43 victory Saturday night.Akron is a heck of a program, Few said. They push you to the limit physically. We had to grind that one out.Przemek Karnowski scored 14 points to lead all players in scoring in a defensive battle that lifted the Zags to the best start in program history.Nigel Williams-Goss added 11 points for Gonzaga (10-0), which has won 10 straight to open the season for the first time since joining Division I in 1958.Few was not overly impressed by the winning streak.I live for the next game, Few said. I dont spend a lot of time looking back.But he allowed that he felt good about Gonzagas record. Im looking forward to getting better, he said.Isaiah Johnson scored 11 points, and Jimond Ivey had 10 for Akron (7-3).The Zips were undone by 27 percent shooting (16 of 60)Gonzaga shot just 40 percent and finished 24 points below its season scoring average.Johnathan Williams scored consecutive baskets and Gonzaga took a 31-25 lead early in the second half.Akron cut the Gonzaga lead to three points, but four free throws by Williams-Goss pushed it out again.Three-pointers by Ivey and Josh Williams cut Gonzagas lead to 42-40 with just under 10 minutes left in the game.But Jordan Mathews hit a 3-pointer to spark a 16-1 run that gave the Zags a 61-43 lead with 2:46 left.The Zips were held without a field goal for the final 8 minutes of the game.We got tired, Akron coach Keith Dambrot said. I was disappointed in how we finished.Dambrot has also been upgrading his schedule to put his players in tough situations.We are big enough to compete with the big boys, he said.Baskets were hard to come by in the first half.A 3-pointer by Silas Melson helped Gonzaga build a 15-9 lead midway through the first half, as both teams went long periods without scoring.That lead held up as Gonzaga led 23-17 at halftime, despite shooting just 27.6 percent. Thats because Akron shot just 25.8 percent and missed all 11 of its 3-point attempts. Gonzaga had been averaging 45 points in the first half of its past four games.It was a season low in first half points for both teams.We didnt let our frustrations on offense bleed over to the defensive side, Few said.The teams only previous meeting was in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament, won by Gonzaga 77-64.POLL IMPLICATIONSA tough win over a quality foe will not hurt Gonzagas poll ranking.BIG PICTUREAkron: Three players are averaging double-digit scoring, led by Isaiah Johnson at 15.2. Antino Jackson and Noah Robotham are adding 12 and 10.1 ppg. Akron is one of just five programs, including Gonzaga, that has won at least 21 games in the past 11 seasons. Dambrot coached LeBron James at Akrons St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.Gonzaga: The only other time the Bulldogs started 9-0 was in 2012-13, and they lost the next game to Illinois. Gonzaga has seven players averaging between 7.9 and 13.7 points per game. Gonzaga is currently seventh in the RPI on NCAA.com.STATSAkron outrebounded the Zags 42-36, including 20 offensive rebounds that gave them an 18-2 advantage on second chance points. Gonzaga made 17 of 20 free throws, which helped them stay ahead when the game got tight. Akron was 6 of 14 from the line.UP NEXTAkron hosts Marshall next Saturday.Gonzaga plays Tennessee in Nashville at the Battle on Broadway on Dec. 18.---More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.orgLuis Gonzalez Jersey .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Albie Lopez Jersey . LeBron James and Chris Bosh didnt need any more. Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. https://www.cheapdiamondbacksjerseys.us/338l-greg-colbrunn-jersey-diamondbacks.html . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Caleb Joseph Jersey . Booth picked up 65 caps after making her national team debut in 2002 at the age of 17. She most recently played for Sky Blue FC of the National Womens Soccer League. "It just felt like it was my time to move on," she said in a phone interview from her hometown of Burlington, Ont. Roberto Alomar Jersey . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay.Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) lasting for 10 years are preventing progress on the debate over the future direction of domestic T20, according to county officials.The ECB insisted that the agreements were signed before counties could be shown plans for a new competition. But now the counties - most of which are owned by their members - say they are constitutionally, morally and perhaps fiducially obliged to consult them before coming to any conclusions. Several clubs, who are unwilling to be named for fear of being seen to have broken their NDAs, state they would need to hold Special General Meetings before progressing.While the ECB claims the non-disclosure agreements are due to the commercial sensitivity of the discussion, some county executives fear they are an attempt to stifle opposition and present plans for a new tournament as a fait accompli.It is true that the ECB is anxious to end an argument that has rumbled on for several years, with occasional outbreaks of cricket. The board has told the counties it wants to reach consensus on the shape of the proposed new tournament at a meeting on September 14.But some of the counties say that this timeframe does not allow discussion with members, or any other cricket lovers, or further examination of the consequences of their decisions. They point out that, while sponsors, broadcasters (some broadcasters, anyway), players and the counties have been given details of the potential options, spectators have been informed only by media reports. They also point out that many questions about the new competition remains unclear.The last time the ECB conducted a consultation process into domestic T20 - the Populous survey of 2012 - it suggested that spectators preferred a predictable schedule that didnt demand too much of their time or their money in the space of a few days. It increasingly looks as if the new competition will see games played every day of the week in a July block.At this stage, though, there is no official preferred option. The ECB presented five options to the counties for discussion: these range from the no-change option that almost nobody favours, to proposals for a new-team, city-based competition. Increasingly, option four - featuring a city-based competition co-existing with the current NatWest Blast T20 - has emerged as the frontrunner.Packaged as a compromise - or a wolf in sheeps clothing, depending on your view - it has won over a number of counties (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and, perhaps, Sussex) that might otherwise have resisted a city-based tournament and seems to have an even chance of gaining the two-thirds majority required to see it adopted as the shape of the season from 2018. The ECB is promising the counties a minimum of £1m each if they do so. It is clear that, officially or not, this is its preferred option.There are, though, huge questions to answer before anything can be confirmed. What other cricket will be played in the July window while the city-based competition is on and is it not a concern that the quality of the Championship (or Blast competition) will be diluted? What evidence is there that audiences in England and Wales will warm to new teams? Can the money promised really be considered new if it comes at the expense of a watered down Blast (with fewer name players, less interest from broadcasters and sponsors and the sense that it is a lesser competition) and can the money even be guaranteed even if broadcasters subsequently fail to deliver on the estimates that the ECB has received or if they fail to reach their audience target? Furthermore, wont the gap between the Test-hosting counties and the rest grow if a city-based competition is held only at the bigger grounds and there is no distribution of non-cricket income (bar receipts, for example)? Especially if they are benefitting from the supply of players from smaller counties, without further compensation.dddddddddddd Equally, it seems odd that all hosting grounds would be paid a flat fee (far below the amount some sides make for hosting Blast matches) whatever their capacity or hospitality facilities.It is understood that the ECB has also been asked to provide assurances that the independent broadcast experts utilised to provide information on the likely value of tournaments do not stand to gain should the city-based tournament win favour. The ECB has a close working history with Sky and appears to have valued the existing competition far below comparable events.Premiership rugby, for example, a sport with similar supporter numbers as county cricket, receives something approaching £40m for its broadcast rights. The ECB currently ascribe a nil value to county cricket and seems to think the Blast is worth as little as £7.5m a year. Thats less than it can expect to earn from gate receipts. A city-based competition, despite lasting less than a month and not being offered exclusively, is said to be worth up to £40m.In the longer-term, the ECB has also been asked whether the international schedule will be cut to make space for the new city-based competition - and to allow England players to take part - and what the cost implications of that might be. Again, if it diminishes the money gained in the next broadcast deal, it would be wrong to view the city-based revenues as new rather than replacement. It seems unlikely that England players will be made available in 2018.But most of all the question remains: why is the ECB not interested in the input of those that, indirectly, pay the wages of the administrators, the media, the players and the broadcasters? One day, and it may not be a distant day, the spectators will tire of the £6 pints, the soggy chips, the slack over rates that short-change them of their £90 Test tickets and spend their money elsewhere. The ECB disrespects them at its peril. ' ' '