Gonzaga denied perfect season
BAYLOR 86, GONZAGA 70 Bears relentless in ending Gonzaga’s run at perfection
INDIANAPOLIS — Baylor knew it would need to play to near-perfection to end Gonzaga’s flawless season.
The Bears just about did.
Jared Butler and their dynamic backcourt hit their first five 3-pointers and never cooled off.
Undersized big man Mark Vital delivered as many headaches as bruises. Their bench was superb, their rebounding exceptional, their game plan impeccable and the coaching of Scott Drew spoton in the crowning moment of his long building job in Waco, Texas.
Th result was a stunning 86-70 rout of the overall No. 1 seed for the first men’s basketball title in school history.
“I can tell you that our guys have been motivated all year. It’s a player-led team,” Drew said. “We’re so blessed to have unbelievable upperclassmen and leadership. But we play with a culture of joy and as you saw for yourself they came out and they fed off of each other. We got off to a great start, and then defensively we’re pretty good.”
Butler, the do-everything All-american, led the way with 22 points, outdueling Gonzaga freshman sensation Jalen Suggs in a matchup of premier point guards. Butler hit four 3-pointers, repeatedly broke down the Bulldogs off the dribble and, when they
managed to stop him, piled up seven assists by finding someone else wide open.
Often it was his backcourt buddies Macio Teague (19 points) and Davion Mitchell (15 points).
Or it was Vital, the 6-foot5-inch, 250-pound fullback in basketball shoes. He had three offensive rebounds before the game was three minutes old, finished with six points and 11 boards and made life miserable for Gonzaga standout Drew Timme.
“Look, I’ve been watching them all year and last year,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said, “and I knew they’d be a handful for us. Those guards are so quick and they can all get their own shot, and they’re obviously more athletic than we are around the rim. I thought we could find some advantages, too, but we just weren’t quite able to do that.”
The Bears roared to a
29-10 lead midway through the first half, the biggest deficit Gonzaga had faced all year, and threatened to turn that highly anticipated showdown into a nationally televised blowout.
“They were just so much more aggressive,” Few said. “We haven’t played a team like that this year.”
The Bulldogs somehow got within 47-37 at halftime, and Suggs got hot early in the second half, allowing them to slowly chip away at their deficit. But that’s when the poise of a team long on experience — Baylor starts three juniors and two seniors — provided the kind of emphatic answer that proved this so-called upset was no fluke.
Gonzaga’s Andrew Nembhard had trimmed the deficit to single digits with 14:22 when Vital answered at the other end. Butler added a couple free throws and, after a bucket by Timme, Teague scored a dazzling, twirling layup, Vital swatted a shot by Corey Kispert and backup Adam Flagler (13 points) buried yet another 3-pointer for the Bears.
In just over a minute, Baylor’s 58-49 lead swelled to 16 points again. It hit 20 a few minutes later. And the Bears merely had to coast through the final 5 minutes to celebrate a national title nearly two decades in the making.