Akron coach Keith Dambrot compared his team's 61-43 loss at No. 8 Gonzaga on Saturday night to that of a football game with teams grinding it out on the ground.

"It was like two football teams running the ball 100 times," Dambrot said. "It was an old-fashioned game of low-block basketball."

Dambrot was referring to the battle of two 300-pounders in the lane: His power forward Isaiah Johnson, who is 6-foot-10, going against Gonzaga 7-foot-1 post player Przemek Karnowski.

"That's a lot of weight banging against each other," said Dambrot, whose team trailed 42-40 with 9:38 left but was outscored 19-3 the rest of the game.

"Regardless of what people say, we were right there in this game," Dambrot added. "It seemed like we got tired at the end but our competitiveness was good.

Karnowski finished with 14 points and eight rebounds to lead the Bulldogs, who are 10-0 for the first time since the program joined the Division I level in 1958-59.

"That accomplishment means something to me with a historic program like this," said Gonzaga point guard Nigel Williams-Goss, who finished with 11 points and five assists. "With the amount of good teams that have been here in the past, you'd think they would start 10-0. This doesn't say anything about the past teams. It's a credit to us for coming out ready to play each game."

The Zips (7-3) were led by Johnson's 11 points and nine rebounds. Guard Jimond Ivey contributed 10 points and seven rebounds.

On two occasions in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Akron cut Gonzaga's lead to three points on 3-pointers but the Bulldogs answered on the other end.

Another shot from beyond the arc by guard Josh Williams cut Gonzaga's lead to 42-40 with 9:38 left in regulation. Gonzaga responded with Williams-Goss making one of two free throws following a technical foul on Johnson. On Gonzaga's next possession, guard Jordan Mathews made two more free throws.

Both of those set of free throws occurred after Johnson and teammate Kwan Cheatham Jr. were each assessed their fourth foul.

"When those guys got their fourth foul, it changed the complexion of the game," Dambrot said. "In playing games on the West Coast like this you don't know who the refs are. ... I know who they are now."

Mathews' first 3-pointer of the game with 8:01 remaining increased Gonzaga's lead to 48-42. That basket helped generate a 16-1 run, capped by Karnowski's basket in the lane with 3:18 left that built the Bulldogs' lead to 61-43.

"It was fun to go against (Johnson); it's always nice to have a challenge like that," said Karnowski, who made all four of his free throws, as Gonzaga was 17 of 20 at the line compared Akron at 6 of 14.

"The important thing is we stuck together and moved the ball well when things looked tough. We made that good push in the second half against a good team."

Akron went without a field goal from when 8:07 remained to the end while Gonzaga made 9 of 10 field-goal attempts in one stretch before it missed its last five shots.

Both offenses struggled for the most part. The Bulldogs' 61 points are a season low. Akron made only one of their last 10 shots from the field.

"We're not going to be fluid on offense the entire season," said Williams-Goss, whose team shot a season-low 40 percent from the field while limiting Akron to 26.7 percent.

"You gotta dig deep. It's a credit to our coaches for helping us grow on the defensive side of the ball to make wins like this possible."

NOTES: In the last two games against Washington and Akron, Gonzaga has been outscored in second-chance points 40-11, including 18-2 against the Zips. "Rebounding is something we'll be working hard in practice all week," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "That will come back to bite us if we continue to let that happen." ... Akron G Noah Robotham returned to the starting lineup after missing the previous two games with an ankle sprain. He finished with three points in 26 minutes. ... Gonzaga G Josh Perkins made 12 shots from 3-point range in the previous four games but had only one against Akron.