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March 19, 2011 in Sports
Jimmer, BYU too much for Zags
Gonzaga’s Marquise Carter, David Stockton, Robert Sacre and Mathis Monninghoff suffer through the final moments of their loss to BYU, March 19, 2011, at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.
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DENVER – The chant went up from the thousands of BYU fans inside the Pepsi Center with roughly 30 seconds remaining: “You Got Jimmered, You Got Jimmered.”
True enough, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs also got “Jacksoned, Noahed and Stephened,” among others. Jimmer Fredette poured in 34 points and his teammates matched his seven 3-pointers as the third-seeded Cougars crushed No. 11 Gonzaga 89-67 Saturday in front of 19,328 to advance to their first Sweet 16 in 30 seasons.
BYU (32-4) will face No. 2 Florida on Thursday in New Orleans. Gonzaga’s rollercoaster season ended with a disappointing loss. The Bulldogs finished 25-10.
“Believe it or not, I felt we defended him OK,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “There was one instance where we got caught scrambling around in help and he got a pretty good look, but he got 34 on 23 shots.
“The disappointing thing for me was we really didn’t want Jackson Emery to get going. We helped off him a couple times when we weren’t supposed to. That got him going. The complementary guys … we gave up 10 points to (reserve forward Stephen) Rogers in the first half. I thought that was a big part of it.”
Gonzaga kept Fredette, the nation’s leading scorer at 28.6 per game, in check early. He missed his first shot, a tough 10-footer over Demetri Goodson. He missed his first 3-point attempt.
Meanwhile, at the offensive end, Gonzaga pounded the ball inside, often to Elias Harris, and led 17-15 after Sam Dower’s layup.
Less than 10 seconds later, Fredette answered with the first of his seven 3s and BYU regained the lead. Another long Fredette 3 put BYU in front for good at 25-22. GU was within 40-36, but Fredette caught the ball on the wing and hit a fade-away 3, helping the Cougars to a 45-38 edge at half.
“As soon as Jimmer catches fire, everybody steps up,” Harris said. “They were hot. They played great, to a man.”
Emery, who had been in a shooting slump in the six games since forward Brandon Davies was suspended for violating BYU’s Honor Code, connected on three 3s and scored 16 points to go with four assists and three steals. Noah Hartsock, who played just two minutes after picking up two quick fouls in the first half, was 3 of 3 from distance and finished with 20 points. Stephen Rogers, scoreless in three of the last four games, had 10 points by intermission.
“Jimmer is going to demand so much attention because of the player he is,” Emery said. “The most important thing is his supporting cast hitting shots. I thought the rest of the guys did a tremendous job of being aggressive tonight.”
The Bulldogs, riding a 10-game winning streak and a wave of late-season improvement, looked nothing like the team that manhandled St. John’s on Thursday. GU put up 86 points against the Red Storm’s zone. In the first half against BYU, Harris hit 6 of 8 shots for 14 points, but the rest of the Zags were just 7 of 25. The Bulldogs made 1 of 7 from beyond the arc, but they shared the ball (11 assists), piled up nine offensive rebounds and used their size advantage to the free-throw line (11 of 13).
That didn’t continue in the second half, but BYU’s shooting exhibition did.
Guards Goodson, Steven Gray and Marquise Carter, who struggled through a scoreless night, committed four turnovers – they didn’t have one in the opening half – in the first 3:30 of the second half and BYU used an 11-2 run to build a 56-40 lead.
“We didn’t play as mentally dialed in as we had in the first half,” Gray said. “Those 3 or 4 turnovers there, they were able to capitalize on.”
Gray scored five quick points to help Gonzaga trim the deficit to eight with 12:18 remaining. Emery’s jumper started a 12-0 spurt, capped with 3s by Fredette and Hartsock, as BYU’s lead grew to 75-58.
“We played too soft and tentative,” Harris said. “We weren’t proactive. It wasn’t good at all. They were hitting 3s like crazy and we just like surrendered, gave up at the end of the game basically.”
Gonzaga relied heavily on its Big Three of Gray (18 points, seven assists), Harris (18 points, eight rebounds) and Robert Sacre (17 points, seven rebounds).
BYU finished 14 of 28 on 3-pointers and 52.5 percent from the field. The Cougars scored 20 points off Gonzaga’s 15 turnovers.
“It definitely shocked me,” Goodson said, referring to the vast improvement BYU showed after a 74-66 win over Wofford on Thursday. “If they shoot the ball like that, they’re going to be tough to beat.”
Pros give precious pointers 
DickAdams on March 19 at 7:31 p.m.
Thanks ZAGS. We had fun and enjoyed the great season watching the best group of guys ever. See ya next year.
woamike on March 19 at 8:13 p.m.
Well said DickAdams.
Good luck to the BYU Cougars in the rest of the tourney.
west on March 19 at 9:33 p.m.
Oooohhh..BYU in the West Coast next season…
tucsonbob on March 19 at 10:47 p.m.
Mark Few at his best being outcoached in an important game! They had 48 hours to prepare for this game. I guess working the ball inside was not an option on offense. Making the Big Dance is what’s important to Mark, not advancing beyond that. The players deserve respect, the head coach does not!
RickS on March 19 at 11:02 p.m.
“We played too soft and tentative,” Harris said. “We weren’t proactive. It wasn’t good at all. They were hitting 3s like crazy and we just like surrendered, gave up”.
Enough said. This game was much more about a Zags effort that could have been pulled from anywhere in the 4-5 start than about what BYU did. That this tentative effort followed just two days after the first game in which they showed their full potential against a good team this season only made the punchline sting more.
Hopefully, having an additional two league games against a quality opponent will help to better season our future squads for the post-season. While this year had enough inconsistency that this may not have mattered, in too many cases over the course of this run strong teams from Nov-Dec have hit a plateau during the league season from which they could not recover.
taquineur on March 20 at 12:01 a.m.
Wow, what a game! I expected BYU to win, but not like that. Not after watching Gonzaga have its way with St. Johns.
It was an exciting way to kick start our conference rivalry next year. I’m looking forward to seeing the Zags in person for the first time next year in Provo. Gonzaga has the longstanding basketball NCAA tourney tradition that we’re hoping to build. I’m expecting some epic battles next year in the WCC.
Till then, Go Cougars!
http://teamjimmer.com
http://planetbyu.com
g_love34 on March 20 at 9:19 a.m.
Here’s what people don’t understand about these Cougars; getting Jimmered means getting Jimmered, Jacksoned, Noahed, etc. Jimmer is great and scores his points, but Jackson and Noah don’t do anything without Jimmer creating opportunities first. He had 6 asstists (should have had 10) and created all kinds of problems for the Zags. Getting Jimmered means that you think about Jimmer so much you get out of your rhythym and game plan and you end up getting beat. ESPN analysts and casual observers don’t get it, but I think the Zags players get it now.
CougarFan on March 20 at 11:55 a.m.
As a Cougar fan I just have to say this was one game and certainly I am glad we won it but I also recognize in basketball no team can shoot that well all the time. Zags I have always respected your program as the Cinderella team beating up the bigger programs. I am looking forward to playing you now twice a year. I think I can speak for about everyone in Utah that we all think John Stockton was the mostly classy player every and we respect where he came from. You have a great heritage and program and I look forward to playing again next year. Congrats on a great year. I hope we can carry on your Cinderella heritage against Florida.