Zags survive first-round scare
Zach Norvell Jr. watched Gonzaga’s greatest moments play out from the sideline last year. This year, the redshirt freshman will be part of the highlight reel.
The shooting guard from Chicago hit the go-ahead 3pointer with 20.8 seconds left Thursday to help the fourthseeded Bulldogs escape a major scare in the West Region with a 68-64 victory over UNC Greensboro.
“He has a knack for that,” coach Mark Few said. “When I saw him size the guy up, I knew that, A, he was probably going to shoot it, and, B, it was probably going to go in.”
Last season’s national runners-up trailed 64-62 with 1:48 left after squandering a 12point lead they took early in the second half.
Josh Perkins tied the game at 64 with a long jumper, and after Greensboro’s Francis Alonso forced up a miss, Gonzaga got the rebound and worked the ball to Norvell, who spotted up from the right elbow and made the 3 for the lead.
As a highly touted recruit, Norvell chose Gonzaga (31-4) over Florida State and Georgetown, to name a few, but he hurt his knee leading up to last season. A long recovery, plus the fact the Zags had a stockpile of talent at the guard position, turned Norvell into a bystander last year while the Bulldogs were making the program’s first run to the Final Four.
He’s been front and centre 2017-18, starting most of the season and averaging 12 points a game. And even though he was 2 for 11 before his gamewinner, he had the confidence to keep shooting.
“Every time I missed, all the guys came to me and said, ‘The next one is going in, the next one is going in,’” Norvell said. “So I had no choice but to make a bucket.”