{"id":198593,"date":"2021-03-10T09:19:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T06:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/no-1-gonzaga-survives-scare-in-west-coast-conference-title-game\/"},"modified":"2021-03-10T09:19:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T06:19:47","slug":"no-1-gonzaga-survives-scare-in-west-coast-conference-title-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/no-1-gonzaga-survives-scare-in-west-coast-conference-title-game\/","title":{"rendered":"#No. 1 Gonzaga survives scare in West Coast Conference title game"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#No. 1 Gonzaga survives scare in West Coast Conference title game<\/a><\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Gonzaga was out of sorts for one of the few times this season, falling into its biggest halftime deficit in three years.<\/p>\n

Corey Kispert got the Bulldogs back in it. Jalen Suggs finished it off.<\/p>\n

The undefeated season is intact. The NCAA Tournament is next.<\/p>\n

Suggs hit two late 3-pointers and scored 23 points, helping top-ranked Gonzaga survive its biggest test of an undefeated season to beat Brigham Young 88-78 in the West Coast Conference Tournament title game on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed a game like that,\u201d Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. \u201cWe had some adversity and got punched in the face. We got together at halftime and the guys just stuck with the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs (26-0) had been unstoppable all season, winning all but one of their games by double digits as they advanced to the WCC title game for the 24th straight year.<\/p>\n

The Cougars (20-6) made the lopsided losses list twice, but exposed Gonzaga\u2019s lone weakness in the first half at Orleans Arena: its defense.<\/p>\n

BYU shot confidently, using an early 11-0 run to build a 12-point halftime lead.<\/p>\n

The Zags responded by locking down defensively and getting back to their efficient ways on offense.<\/p>\n

Kispert hit three early 3-pointers and scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half. Suggs took charge down the stretch, hitting consecutive 3-pointers to put Gonzaga up by nine with 1:28 left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been dreaming of playing college basketball all my life,\u201d Suggs said. \u201cI was practicing on my Little Tikes hoop for these exact moments and for it to play out like this is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzaga has won a school-record 30 straight games over two seasons and will be the first team since Kentucky in 2015, and 16th overall, to enter the NCAA Tournament undefeated. The Zags won their eighth WCC title in nine years and 17th under Few.<\/p>\n

Trevin Knell led BYU with 20 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really good,\u201d BYU coach Mark Pope said. \u201cThey played a great game and competed the whole way. They do a terrific job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cougars were the last team to beat Gonzaga, 91-78 on Feb. 22, 2020.<\/p>\n

Gonzaga won the first meeting this season by 17 points, but the second was 82-71 \u2014 one of the closest games these Zags have played.<\/p>\n

BYU\u2019s best chance to win the third go-round was to outshoot the Zags.<\/p>\n

The Cougars did just that to start the game, hitting 10 of their first 16 shots to take a 26-19 lead. BYU continued to go right at the Zags, hitting 9 of 13 from beyond the arc to lead 53-41 at halftime. Knell had 15 points and was 4 of 5 from 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t stop them,\u201d Few said. \u201cThey had us on roller skates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzaga looked like more the the nation\u2019s No. 1 team to start the second half, getting out to BYU\u2019s shooters and putting the ball in Kispert\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

The preseason Associated Press All-American shot 1 of 6 in the first half, but made three 3s in the opening three minutes to pull Gonzaga with 55-52. It stayed close as the teams traded runs, then Suggs hit a 3-pointer with 2:20 left and another on Gonzaga\u2019s next possession to make it 82-73.<\/p>\n

\u201cGonzaga responded in the second half,\u201d said BYU guard Alex Borcello, who had 15 points. \u201cWe had a really good first half, some shots didn\u2019t fall in the second half, we didn\u2019t grab a couple of rebounds and Gonzaga pulled away.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#No. 1 Gonzaga survives scare in West Coast Conference title game” LAS VEGAS \u2014 Gonzaga was out of sorts for one of the few times this season, falling into its biggest halftime deficit in three years. Corey Kispert got the Bulldogs back in it. Jalen Suggs finished it off. The undefeated season is intact. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/Gonzaga-players.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[97019,97080,72026,82023,97081],"class_list":["post-198593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-10-21","tag-byu-cougars","tag-college-basketball","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-mark-few"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}