GCU magic runs out in loss to Gonzaga
DENVER — For six-and-a-half games, Grand Canyon was living the dream. A six-game winning streak in March. An eight-point lead over No. 3seed Gonzaga in the first half after a bad opening three minutes.
Then, the dream shattered in a slew of Gonzaga blocked shots, Drew Timme taking off, Anton Watson and Julian Strawther raining 3s, and, coupled with a seven-minute scoreless stretch in the second half, it was over.
No. 14-seed GCU (24-12) left Ball Arena with an 82-70 loss to a team that is now on a 10-game winning streak and never gets tangled up in the first round as a high seed and finds a way to overcome.
“It’s like I coached four different teams this year,” Coach Bryce Drew said. “I credit these guys. This is the team we knew could make it deep. It’s great that we did it in March and not in January and Febuary, because is March is when we want to play our best basketball.
“We had a meeting when March started that we want to win March. We did that. We won six in a row in March.”
Delivering a punch
For a 14th consecutive year, Gonzaga (29-5) won its opening round of the NCAA Tournament, this time to start the West Region.
And for the second time in three years, GCU exited in the first round of March Madness with a 12-point defeat. But, unlike two years ago in the bubble tournament in Indianapolis, a loss to Iowa, the Antelopes recovered much faster after turning the ball over on their first four possessions and fell in a 7-0 hole without Timme scoring a point.
Gonzaga wanted to knock GCU off of its spots at the 3-point line to start the game. But Walter Ellis and Chance McMillian hit successive 3s to give the Lopes a 12-10 lead, part of a 12-2 run. Gonzaga went 5 minutes without scoring and GCU was ahead 28-21 with 5:51 to play in the half after a Noah Baumann 3 and an Ellis basket that came just as
the shot clock was about to expire. It was the fourth time in the half that GCU made a shot in the final second before the shot clock expired.
“I mean, they obviously play hard,” said 6-foot-10 senior Andrew Timme, who ended up with 21 points and three of Gonzaga’s eight blocked shots. “But I think that was more of us being, like Coach said, just had some jitters.
“It’s a big, high-pressure event, and I felt like on the whole we were a little nervous, whichi is human nature. And then the second half we calmed down, recollected ourselves. We’re Gonzaga. They played their tails off and they’re here for a reason. There’s no easy path, everything is hard, and it was certainly a hard war today.”
Shifing into overdrive
Whatever hit GCU in the second half, Gonzaga’s unrelenting will, and finally coming down to Earth after winning the last two games of the regular season in Utah and winning four games in five days in Las Vegas for the WAC title, it was over fast.
Rasir Bolton hit a 3, Timme scored inside, and then again as he was fouled for a three-point play and Gonzaga, leading 40-36 at the half, had a 48-40 lead. Six minutes later, it was 64-42. The dagger was Ray Harrison finding an opening along the baseline, only to have his layup blocked, which was turned into a 3 at the other end by Strawther that put the Lopes in a 57-42 hole with 13 minutes to play.
Strawther finished with 28 points, making 3 of 6 3-pointers, and 10 rebounds. Watson had 14 points, making 2 of 3 3-pointyers, and grabbled 11 rebounds.
“Yeah, the irony is that we put our best offensive lineup in the game, because sometimes when we struggle — we’ve done it all year — we move Gabe (McGlothan) to the 5 and we play small ball and really spread it and drive it.
“We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket for that whole stretch. I think we had two at the rim that we didn’t finish. We had a shot in the paint from Gabe and another shot in the paint from Ray, a 3 from Gabe. And couldn’t find the basket on any of them.”
Not enough help
GCU will need to recruit hard in the portal this offseason for an offensive post presence. Ouedraogo is GCU’s best post defender, but his eight rebounds were hardly enough against the Zags, who out-rebouned GCU 39-25. McGlothan played only 8 minutes in the first half due to picking up two quick fouls. He ended up with just three rebounds, after averaging nearly eight all season. He had 11 points.
Harrison was only 3 of 12 shooting, before he finally got shots to fall when the game was already decided. He had 20 points on 8 of 19shooting and three assists and two steals.
McMillian led GCU with 16 points on 7 of 15 shooting and 2 of 5 3s.
“Of course, there were nerves for us,” McGlothan said. “I just think that shows you care about the game. But other than that, we’ve just een relying on our brotherhood for so long that it was just like, we have each other’s backs. And that’s why when they got us in the first three minutes, we just rallied together like we always do, and just relied on each other.”
Making this the springboard
GCU can get the program rolling on solid ground under Drew, getting to the dance twice in two years, and returning leading scorers Harrison and McGlothan, along with McMillian and freshman guard Kobe Knox, whose confidence took off in March.
“I wish we could skip a lot of steps and upset a team like Gonzaga and make the Sweet Sixteen, but in a normal situation you have to go step-by-step,” Drew said. “And the experience these guys gained in this NCAA Tournament playing against a program like Gonzaga is only going to make us better for the future. All five starters return.”
GCU will also get back point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., the WAC Preason Player of the Year, from knee surgery after tearing his ACL in early January.
“This is how you build a great program by having younger guys that play well, get to the tournament, get a taste of it, and hopefully you return and you make a splash the next time you get in.”