Freshman Elias Harris scored a season-high 27 points and No. 21 Gonzaga overcame the absence of leading scorer Matt Bouldin to beat Davidson 103-91 on Saturday night.

Bouldin sat out three days after he was cracked just below the temple by an opponent’s forehead and said he was knocked out briefly early in a win over Division III Augustana of Illinois on Wednesday.

Robert Sacre dominated the smaller Wildcats inside with a career-best 23 points and the Bulldogs won for the first time in four tries in their annual game across the state in Seattle.

Thanks to an unending parade of free throws, the Bulldogs scored their most points since a 109-106 victory over Michigan State in Hawaii on Dec. 22, 2005. And that game lasted three overtimes.

Freshman Jake Cohen scored 16 points and Brendan McKillop had 15 on five 3-pointers for Davidson , which was 85-20 in three seasons with sharpshooter Stephen Curry before he left a year early for the NBA last summer.

The rematch of Davidson’s thrilling win in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament was supposed to be lackluster. Curry, who scored 40 points in a national unveiling that March day in Raleigh, N.C., against the Bulldogs, left after his junior season last summer and is with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. The four others who started with Curry and led them to within a missed 3-point attempt of the 2008 Final Four are gone, too.

Gonzaga and Sacre overpowered the smaller Wildcats inside, making 41 of a Zags record 54 free throws. Sacre was 11 for 18 from the line, and Harris was 11 of 14. Harris, a recruiting gem from Germany, also made his first seven shots from the field.

Yet Davidson, which has beaten only Fredonia State and The Citadel this season, trailed by just two at halftime behind strong 3-point shooting.

So Saturday’s game seemed more like a small college trying to stay with a national power, one that just won the loaded Maui Invitational and could be headed to another NCAA tournament appearance.

The lead got to 85-67 on a soaring dunk by Sacre, a 7-foot sophomore.

Gonzaga, which next plays Duke in New York, then scored the first six points of the second half - three of them on another jumper by Harris. A dunk by Sacre with McKillop falling helplessly at his feet, plus two 3-pointers by Gray sandwiched around a slashing basket by Bol Kong, put the Bulldogs up 72-58 with 13 1/2 minutes left.

Gonzaga was without its top three scorers by the midway point of a streaky first half. Bouldin was watching from the bench in a pink dress shirt and tie. Second-leading scorer Steven Gray left with his second foul. And Sacre departed with his second foul with 9:08 remaining in the opening period.

Davidson pulled to 100-91 on a three-point play by Kuhlman with 50.8 left before Gonzaga continued its parade of free throws.

But the Zags began forcing backcourt turnovers off traps and scored the next 17 points to retake the lead. Harris had 15 points and Gonzaga shot 67 percent in its highest-scoring first half of the season, which ended with a 47-45 lead.

Davidson then came back from being nine down early with a 13-0 run fueled by four 3-pointers by McKillop. Suddenly Gonzaga was down 35-28.

The three wins Davidson had in the ‘08 NCAAs behind Curry, starting with Gonzaga, remain its only victories in its last 66 games against ranked opponents dating to 1974.

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