MADNESS ZIGS AND ZAGS
No. 1 Gonzaga escapes, Bhullar’s Aggies out,
SALT LAKE CITY— It was every frontrunner’s nightmare.
Top-seeded Gonzaga ran into a No. 16 seed that wasn’t playing like one, a crowd itching for an upset and the prospect of making history in a most embarrassing way.
Somehow, the Zags manoeuvred their way out of that mess Thursday with a 64-58 win over Southern University, but not before they provided plenty of fodder for all those who wondered if that small school really belonged at the top of the West Region bracket. “The more I watched film on them, the more I thought, ‘This could be a real grinder,’ ” coach Mark Few said of the Jaguars, champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. “They don’t give you many easy opportunities. They’re very patient on offence.”
Gonzaga’s win wasn’t safely in hand until the final buzzer sounded. No. 1 seeds improved to 113-0 since the NCAA tournament field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Led by Derick Beltran’s 21 points, Southern (23-10) made life hard on the West Coast Conference champions, blocking eight shots, making 10 3-pointers, harassing its star player, Toronto-born Kelly Olynyk, and never letting the Bulldogs out of striking range.
Olynyk, who grew up in Kamloops, B.C., scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half to help the Zags (32-2) advance to Saturday’s game against Wichita State.
But there was no celebration. Just a big sigh of relief.
“That crowd gets going, everyone wants to see that first 1-16 loss,” Few said. “My guys deserve credit. They showed a lot of poise down the stretch when things weren’t going their way.”
Though Olynyk was the force that kept Gonzaga ahead through the second half, it was a pair of 3-pointers — one by Gary Bell Jr., the next by Kevin Pangos — a native of Newmarket, who scored16 points — that gave the Bulldogs their small cushion after Southern tied things at 56 with 3:45 left.
Bell’s three made it 59-56 after Beltran hit a 14-footer on the baseline to close out a15-4 Southern run and tie the game.
Beltran answered with two free throws to cut the deficit to one, but Gonzaga responded by working the ball to Pangos, whose 3 made it a four-point game.
Yondarius Johnson and Malcom Miller both had open looks on the next possession for Southern, but neither could convert. And the Jaguars, the team from the school in Baton Rouge, La., with enrolment 6,900, never stopped scrapping.
This was a program nearly wiped off the map three years ago because of an NCAA investigation into problems in the classroom. Their coach, Roman Banks, looked to Gonzaga — tiny school with big dreams — as the program his players should try to emulate. “We were basically an unknown ball club that showed they can play the game of basketball,” Banks said. “But we came here to win a ball game, not play a ball game.” The Jaguars did almost everything right in this game, but missed five open shots down the stretch that could have put them over the top. “From a coaching perspective, you learn that two or three bad possessions can cost you a ball game,” Banks said. Pangos made two free throws with 14.3 seconds left to seal the game. Only then did the Gonzaga cheering section rile up and the rest of the crowd, pulling for the underdog, settle down. This game provided a fitting start to March Madness 2013 — the closing act to a season filled with upsets, shifts atop The Associated Press poll and no dominant team. Gonzaga’s critics felt the Zags got to No. 1 by default more than anything. Despite its struggles, Gonzaga kept working the ball to Olynyk in the second half. At one point, he had 17 of Gonzaga’s 20 second-half points. “Any win in the tournament is a good win,” Olynyk said. “We have to kind of take that into consideration and move forward.”