March 20, 2011 in News, Sports

Jimmer Fredette’s 34 points lead BYU to victory over Gonzaga

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Dan Pelle photo

Gonzaga’s Robert Sacre suffers through the final moments of the Bulldogs’ second-round NCAA tournament loss to BYU.
(Full-size photo)

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 11th-seeded 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 fadeaway 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 2 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 get 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 three or four 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.”

25 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  PhiltheBibliophil on March 20 at 7:34 a.m.

  How the Zags could play like they did against St Johns and then come out and play like that is beyond me. Will be one of the great mysteries of the Storied program! Jimmer is good, really good, but he’s only one player. Thanks for the memories, Steven. You played on a classy team. For Mark, back to the drawing boards!

• 

  HenderCoug on March 20 at 8:36 a.m.

  Cougar fan here. The score last night didn’t reflect the parity of talent on the Court. Two good teams, but the shots fell for only one. I am excited to see BYU in the WCC. The Gonzaga/BYU rivalry will be a good one. Sacre is an unbelievable talent, and Few is a class act.

• 

  Radbooks on March 20 at 9:20 a.m.

  Thanks for a wonderful and truly enjoyable season, Zags! Good luck in your future endeavors, Steven, and thanks for 4 years of wonderful memories.

  I’m already counting down the days until next year! :)

• 

  blazer81 on March 20 at 9:28 a.m.

  goodbye and good riddance to Gonzaga…

  and phil, when you say storied program, do you mean one that has never won a national title, and since the 1999 season, is 21-40 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25? I guess the Bulldogs can’t play St. Maries and San Francisco every game, can they? What a storied program….

• 

  dotgovguy on March 20 at 9:52 a.m.

  Maybe Gonzaga should consider fielding a few less tatted-up, gangstuh thugballers. BYU played the game the way it was intended, as a team, and won easily.

• 

  liberal_in_right_wing_land on March 20 at 10:47 a.m.

  dotgovguy - your a racist idiot. Sorry, not everyone can be good wholesome mormons like you and BYU who hates anyone not a mormon.

• 

  SeeRed on March 20 at 11:26 a.m.

  St. Johns is nothing more than an average Big Least team and the Zags played out of their mind and won a good game. St Johns is not on par with BYU and neither are the Zags, plain and simple. Just accept the fact the Zags are just a really good mid-major program and be happy with an upset win and hope BYU doesn’t do the same to you twice next year.

• 

  stopthewhining on March 20 at 11:31 a.m.

  Here we go….always some negative, judgemental people on here. “Dotgovguy”, tattoos don’t automatically mean “thugballers”. Gonzaga has a lot of great people with and without tattoos and society has a lot of terrible people with and without tattoos. You’re what is wrong with the world today!

  Great job this year Gonzaga! It has been fun!

• 

  SeeRed on March 20 at 11:55 a.m.

  Yes, the negative judgemental people that haven’t been drinking the Mark Few koolaid and blindly thinking the Zags are the same Elite 8 Cinderella story they were…a decade ago. Watch some real basketball outside of the kennel and you will see what us “negative” people are talking about.

• 

  hunternomore on March 20 at 12:04 p.m.

  From someone who both worked there and went to school there, meaning a history with Gonzaga, everyone with that history KNOWS this team is not what it ever was under Monson. Nor, apparently, will it ever be again. Frankly, I think this loss to BYU should show that there are some serious, superficial decisions made to complete this team, over the years, that will never play out.

• 

  flutieflakes on March 20 at 12:07 p.m.

  I’d take a tatted-up big man who can play like Sacre over a clean-cut guy that can’t play (like all of BYU’s bigs yesterday).

  I’d also take Jimmer, though.

• 

  flutieflakes on March 20 at 12:11 p.m.

  “Watch some real basketball outside of the kennel and you will see what us “negative” people are talking about.”

  Yeah SeeRed, watch some real basketball, like EWU? What a joke.

• 

  Shazamm on March 20 at 12:53 p.m.

  Gonzaga is chronically overrated and I totally agree with DotGuvGuy. I don’t care who wears tattooes. They originated in the prison system and most of them look like big, ugly birthmarks. And what is with the big, floppy shorts that darn near go to the ankles (especially on the short guys)? They look like skirts…

• 

  johnclarke on March 20 at 1:25 p.m.

  I don’t really follow college ball, but I have watched with muted interest the building of a little empire complete with new stadium and high priced membership. I imagine some expectations of winning come along with all that. I sense regime change.

• 

  jimmyball on March 20 at 4:25 p.m.

  Once again the season ends because GU guards can’t play defense. You can recruit all the state leading scorers and the walkons with bloodlines but unless they learn to play defense the outcome will be the same.

• 

  SeeRed on March 20 at 4:42 p.m.

  No Flutie I was not referring to EWU, Big Sky is small ball and I have no problem saying it. I was talking about a real conference, like the ones the Zags always lose to. Very impressive non-conference record against ranked opponents against Few.

• 

  Pat O'Leary on March 20 at 5:39 p.m.

  it’s the magic underwear

• 

  GuGrad96 on March 20 at 9:17 p.m.

  hunternomore, SeeRed, and Blazer81 don’t know their basketball. First of all, while Dan Monson certainly did a good job at GU, he was only head coach for 2 seasons before jumping ship to Minnesota. To suggest that “the program” was in far better shape back then is ludicrous. They made one deep run in the tournament during his second season by playing well and having ideal match-ups. You only need 3 games with the right match-ups you are in the Elite 8, and in 1999 the Zags beat a short-handed Minnesota team that had players suspended for academic fraud, an overrated Stanford team, and Florida, a #6 seed that was only in the Sweet 16 because North Carolina (the 3 seed) was upset in the first round. A few of GU’s better teams have been derailed by individual plays that cost them the entire season— such as JP Batista’s turnover vs. UCLA in the #2 vs. #3 game in 2006. Incidentally, UCLA went on to the Final 4. GU’s record against top 25 teams isn’t bad. I’d be shocked if more than a handful of teams have a winning record against top 25 teams over the same 10-12 year period. Think about it, UNC won the national title 2 years ago and didn’t get in last year with a roster full of McDonald’s All-Americans. Think that hurt their record against top 25 teams? Lets be realistic— this wasn’t one of GU’s better teams— but they have everyone back. Next year, they’ll be a higher seed and will have better match-ups and have a good shot at the Sweet 16. And then, everyone will think that order has been restored to the universe.

• 

  ricechex on March 20 at 9:19 p.m.

  Zags win a cupcake conference year in and year out, then win a game or two in the NCAA before getting thumped. It’s really not nearly as impressive as folks around here think it is.

• 

  DeerLaker on March 21 at 9:43 a.m.

  As a BYU fan, it was a great win. But my mother is a Gonzaga grad (‘58) so there were mixed emotions in her house. BYU beat Gonzaga this year but wait until next year. I read the Bulldogs only lose one player while BYU will lose several. It will be a whole different ballgame next year. I know that does not help with the loss but you can only look to the future. I see Gonzaga going 2-0 against BYU next year.

  One comment: my mother always pronounces it Gonzaga with a long first ‘a’ sound. Since she went there, I assume that is how it was pronounced. However, everyone now says Gonzaga with short first ‘a’ sound. When did it change?

• 

  blazer81 on March 22 at 1:58 p.m.

  GuGrad96,
  How is 21-40 against Top 25 programs since ‘99 a good thing? That is a terrible record… and you’re right… there are probably a handful of teams that have winning records against the Top 25… but guess what? I am willing to bet those programs have won a title or two or play a tougher non-conference and conference schedule…it just proves that Gonzaga can’t win against the top notch programs in the country…it amazes me that people like you celebrate mediocrity the way you do…

• 

  SeeRed on March 22 at 9:24 p.m.

  Amen Blazer. Zags fans want to be ranked in the top 10 yet see winning one tourney game as a success. If the Zags were truly a power program making the second weekend of the tourney should be the expectation, not something celebrated as a major accomplishment.

• 

  GuGrad96 on March 23 at 2:51 p.m.

  blazer81 & SeeRed,

  A couple of points:
  -My post was to answer the erroneous assertion that “the program” was in much better shape in 1999. The 21-40 record against top 25 teams since then is far better than their record against comparable opponents before that time. This is a fact and is not even up for discussion.
  -You appear to agree that a short list of teams has a better record against top 25 opponents. So I guess everyone outside of that short list “has a terrible record.” I certainly haven’t suggested the Zags are in elite (top 10) company. Anyone that does is misguided. They are in the next tier of good, top 30 D1 basketball programs (of 346 D1 teams) year in and year out until they make a deeper run. I’d be interested in seeing a list of the best records against the top 25 over the same period. They wouldn’t be as stellar as you might expect because everyone has a down year or two where you lose most of your games against ranked teams (see UNC). If you have a list of records, I’d sure like to see it.
  -Sure, any fan wants to see their team ranked in the top 10. The reality is that at times, the Zags have deserved a high ranking, and at other times they haven’t. This year, despite some ups and downs, they finished about where any knowledgable fan would have expected.

• 

  blazer81 on March 24 at 4:46 p.m.

  go look at the RPI of all the teams in men’s college basketball at this web site: http://statsheet.com/mcb/rankings/RPI

  That’s the only stat you need to look at…and you can go back over the years to see where Gonzaga ranks compared to other college programs

  2010-2011: Ranked 50
  2009-2010: Ranked 32
  2008-2009: Ranked 26
  2007-2008: Ranked 30
  2006-2007: Ranked 58
  2005-2006: Ranked 10

  And you can go back from there…basically, in the last 6 season, they were a top 25 team RPI-wise one season…and they got knocked out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by UCLA… And that’s the best Gonzaga team in the last 6 seasons… what is their to celebrate at all? Congrats 2010-2011 Bulldogs… there were 49 teams ranked higher than you based on your schedule and wins… and you got to beat an over-rated St. John’s team in the true first round of the tournament… seems to be quite on par for Gonzaga men’s basketball…

• 

  blazer81 on March 24 at 4:58 p.m.

  and contrary to your belief, GU, i do happen to know about basketball… it all comes down to one thing… either your an elite program, that puts up wins againt top opponents and wins titles, or you are not… Gonzaga is not one of those teams… sure, they can breeze through a terrible conference (and you can’t even argue that their conference isn’t terrible), but they aren’t even in the same realm as Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, UCLA, etc., all teams that have won multiple conference and national titles.

  Listen, I am an Ohio State alumni and huge Buckeyes supporter, but it’s unrealistic for me to even call them anything but what they are: A mediocre basketball program that has a few good runs for a few years, but can’t secure a national title… or even consistency for that matter… and that’s exactly what the Bulldogs are…mediocre at best…

  And i end my part of this discussion on that note. I have proven my point, take it or leave it, agree with it or don’t…the proof is in the pudding…