ZAGS HAVE ANSWERS LATE
Push right buttons in closing seconds to advance to title game
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Their star guard was outstanding. Their big men dominated inside. Still, it came down to some last- second strategy for the Gonzaga Bulldogs to move on to the NCAA tournament championship game for the first time.
Nigel Williams- Goss scored 23 points, Gonzaga’s big men combined for 27 and the Bulldogs kept South Carolina from taking a game- tying shot in a 77- 73 victory Saturday in a matchup of first- time teams at the Final Four.
“Just an awesome, awesome basketball game, with just how hard both teams competed,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “It took everything we had to hold them off and come back.”
The Bulldogs’ 7- footers, senior Przemek Karnowski and freshman Zach Collins, took care of things on both ends of the court, combining for 18 rebounds. Collins also had a career- high six blocks.
“My job is to go in and rimprotect,” said Collins, who had 14 points and 13 rebounds. “I had four fouls today. But I thought, you know, getting those blocked shots would help us.”
Gonzaga ( 37- 1), the top seed in the West Regional of the NCAA tournament, play for the title on Monday night.
“To be playing the last game of the year, that’s crazy cool,” Few said.
Williams- Goss missed a shot with 12.7 seconds left, and South Carolina rebounded and called a timeout, trailing 75- 72. South Carolina passed the ball around, and Sindarius Thornwell was fouled before he could shoot with 3.5 sec- onds left. Thornwell made the first free throw and missed the second on purpose in hopes of his teammates grabbing an offensive rebound. Killian Tillie rebounded for Gonzaga, was fouled and made two free throws to seal the victory.
“We had been practicing it all year, and we always want to foul under six [ seconds],” Few said. “Josh Perkins did a job being really patient and not fouling on the shot. The second part is you’ve got to get the rebound, and that’s been difficult for us at times. They executed great.”
Thornwell said the idea was to get in position for one last quick shot.
“The plan was to miss it left and hopefully Chris [ Silva] could tap it out to somebody,” he said.
Williams- Goss, a second- team All- American, led the Bulldogs to a 14- point lead in the second half, but it disappeared quickly as the Gamecocks ( 26- 11) put together a 14- point run to grab a 67- 65 lead with about seven minutes to play.
“When things got tough, we banded together and pulled through,” said Williams- Goss, who had six assists and a brief injury scare after turning an ankle underneath the basket.
“There was no way I was going to come out of the game. This is the last two games of the season. Now we’re 40 minutes from a championship.”
Collins and Karnowski then accounted for the next seven points, including a three- pointer by Collins and a thunderous dunk by Karnowski.
South Carolina still wasn’t done. The seventh- seeded Gamecocks scored five in a row to close to 7472 with just over 2 minutes left.
“Since the beginning of the season, that’s what we worked for, moments like this,” Silva said.