Louisville weathers Russell’s magical night in win over GCU
Grand Canyon’s roster is dwindling, but its passion has never been greater than on Saturday night.
With an electric, sold-out crowd willing the undermanned, undersized Antelopes on, GCU gave No. 14 Louisville a road experience it probably wasn’t expecting, having to work hard for shots and overcome a feisty bunch to win 79-70 before 7,493, the biggest crowd in GCU Arena history.
GCU (3-4), coming off arguably the worst home performance in the Dan Majerle coaching era on Monday in a 12-point loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, played one of its best on Saturday, leading
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LOS ANGELES – With Parker Jackson Cart wright joining Allonzo Trie ron the Arizona bench, the Wildcats sputtered on both ends of the court early and never fully recovered in a 69-62 loss to Gonzaga Saturday at Staples Center.
Gonzaga hit six 3pointers to lead by 12 at halftime, then expanded its lead by up to 16 points before the Wildcats made it interesting in the final minutes. But the Wildcats could never cut Gonzaga's lead to less than five points, while guard Kadeem Allen fouled out in the final seconds.
Arizona was down to only seven scholarship players, after Jackson Cart wright suffered an ankle sprain Wednesday against Texas Southern and Trier missed another game with his seasonlong eligibility issue.
Trier made his first road trip with the Wildcats this season, sparking renewed speculation that he might play, but he instead joined Jackson-Cartwright and UA’s other injured players on the team bench.
Without Jackson Cartwright, the Wildcat offense struggled noticeably in the first half, committing nine turnovers and shooting just 35.7 percent before halftime. They recovered somewhat in the second half, but were never a factor from 3-point range and couldn’t offset an unusually rough shooting game from Lauri Markkanen.
Markkanen was just four of 14 from the field and missed all three 3pointers he took. While Markkanen finished with 14 points, Rawle Alkins led UA with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski led the Zags with 18 points, pushing his weight around the basket to hit nine of 13 field goals.
The Wildcats allowed Gonzaga to make 6 of 13 3pointers in the first half, but kept the Zags to just 1of-8 from beyond the arc in the second half to help make it competitive.
Down by 12 at halftime, Arizona pulled out occasional rallies to keep the margin from growing. They held Gonzaga scoreless for over three minutes midway through the half, while cutting it to 4938 on a layup from Dusan Ristic with 12:04 left.
The Wildcats later cut it to single digits, 59-50, on a jumper by Markkanen with 5:34 to go and after both teams missed shots, Rawle Alkins banked in a 12-footer to cut it to seven to make it close for the final four minutes.