Santa Clara stays close, then falls at No. 1 Gonzaga
Corey Kispert scored 25 points, Drew Timme had 16 of his 18 points in the second half, and No. 1 Gonzaga won its 50th straight at home, beating Santa Clara 89-75 on Thursday night in Spokane, Wash.
The Bulldogs won their 27th straight overall dating to last season but struggled to shake the Broncos for most of the night.
Timme was a big reason why Gonzaga (23-0, 14-0 WCC) was finally able to pull away in the second half. Limited to just eight minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, Gonzaga’s primary interior scorer made 7 of 9 shots as the Bulldogs pulled away from a 40-38 halftime lead.
Jalen Suggs nearly had a triple-double finishing with 13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and Joel Ayayi added 11 points for Gonzaga.
Gonzaga’s 50-game home win streak matches the longest in school history. The Bulldogs have also won 20 straight games by double-digits, matching the longest streak ever by a team ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25. UCLA also won 20 straight by double-digits during the 1971-72 season.
Guglielmo Caruso led Santa Clara (10-7, 4-5) with 19 points, and Giordan Williams added 18. The Broncos led by 10 early in the first half and held the advantage for most of the first 20 minutes before Gonzaga pulled ahead just before the break.
Santa Clara trailed just 73-66 after Josip Vrankic’s layup with 6:44 left, but could get no closer. DICKINSON HELPS NO. 3 MICHIGAN ROUT NO. 9 IOWA >> Hunter Dickinson gave Luka Garza fits around the basket, and Franz Wagner scored 21 points to lead No. 3 Michigan to a 79-57 victory over No. 9 Iowa in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The Wolverines (17-1, 121) passed yet another test against a highly ranked opponent, and they look increasingly alone atop the Big Ten, where every other team has at least four conference losses. Dickinson more than held his own against Garza in a muchanticipated matchup of two standout big men who have known each other for years.
Garza led the Hawkeyes (17-7, 11-6) with 16 points, but he shot 6 of 19 from the field.
COVID-19 CONTINGENCY PLANS REVEALED FOR NCAAS >> Turns out the top four teams left out of March Madness won’t have their bubbles burst quite yet.
Under a contingency plan released Thursday by the Division I basketball committees, those four at-large teams that don’t make the original field in the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments will be placed in order and serve as the replacement teams should any conference with multiple bids have a school that is unable to participate due to COVID-19 issues.
If the tournament begins without any withdrawals, the four would still be eligible to compete in the NIT.
The contingency plan only applies to the short period between the announcement of the brackets — March 14 for men and March 15 for women — and the start of games later that week. Once a tournament begins, any team whose opponent is forced to withdraw would automatically advance to the next round.
SOUTH CAROLINA HIT WITH 2 YEARS PROBATION >> The NCAA placed the South Carolina program on probation for two years for former assistant coach Lamont Evans’ role in a farreaching bribery scandal.