Gonzaga rolls past Creighton, into Elite Eight
INDIANAPOLIS — Drew Timme scored
22 points and top-seeded Gonzaga did against Creighton what it’s done throughout this unblemished season, rolling past the fifth-seeded Bluejays with versatile offense and efficient defense to win 83-65 on Sunday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Andrew Nembhard added 17 points for the Bulldogs (29-0), who have won a schoolrecord 33 consecutive games and extended their Division I record to 26 straight doubledigit wins.
Gonzaga did it this time on a quiet day for star Jalen Suggs, who finished with nine points. The Bulldogs methodically built a
10-point halftime lead and pushed ahead by
20 on Suggs’ layup with 11:22 left. The Zags will face sixth-seeded Southern California or seventh-seeded Oregon on Tuesday in the West regional final.
Marcus Zegarowski scored 19 points to lead the Bluejays (22-9), who were trying to reach their first Elite Eight since 1941, when only eight teams played in the NCAA Tournament.
As they have many times this season, the Zags led wire to wire.
Gonzaga’s fast start forced Creighton to call its first timeout a little more than two minutes into the game and within seven minutes the Zags already led 22-12.
The Bluejays settled down and fought back within 27-25. But Gonzaga answered with five straight points, took a 43-33 halftime lead and spent most of the second half pulling away.
Nembhard also had eight assists while Timme added six rebounds. Joel Ayayi finished with 13 points and eight rebounds and Corey Kispert had 12 points for Gonzaga, which shot 59.6% from the field.
MICHIGAN 76, FLORIDA SATE 58
INDIANAPOLIS — Hunter Dickinson scored 14 points and top-seeded Michigan took the inside route to the Elite Eight, pounding away in the paint for a takedown of surprisingly helpless Florida State.
Franz Wagner had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolverines, who scored their first 30 points of the second half from close range to lead coach Juwan Howard and Co. to a victory in the only “chalk” meeting between a 1 and 4 seed of the second weekend.
Michigan (23-4) moved to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2018. The Wolverines will play the winner of Sunday’s later UCLA-Alabama game.
Badly off target most of the night, Florida State didn’t eclipse the 20-point mark until M.J. Walker (10 points) hit a jumper with 27 seconds left in the first half.
Much of the credit for the Seminoles’ off night goes to Michigan. The Wolverines have big men in 7-foot-1 Dickinson and 6-9 Wagner, the likes of whom FSU hasn’t faced much, even as its long, athletic bunch took the program to their third straight Sweet 16.
Dickinson had eight rebounds and blocked two shots. He was a constant presence underneath, forcing Florida State, the team listed by analytics guru Kenpom as having the tallest average height in the nation, to twist and turn and bend and force shots up from inside the paint, where Michigan had a 50-28 advantage in points.