Nic Moore takes over late, lifts No. 16 SMU over Gonzaga

Moore was too much for Gonzaga.

Senior point guard Nic Moore broke loose for 25 points and 11 assists, several of those passes going to forward Ben Moore, who added 16 points in No. 16 SMU’s 69-60 non-conference victory Saturday at Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

Gonzaga’s six-game winning streak came to an end. The Zags (20-6) missed an opportunity to bolster their NCAA at-large resume and possibly return to the Top 25 rankings.

“We’ve been making good, solid basketball plays on both ends of the floor, especially in the last eight minutes of games, and we just didn’t do it tonight,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “We couldn’t get a stop and we ran into a heck of player in Nic Moore. We almost absorbed a really cold shooting night by (Kyle) Wiltjer thanks to Domas (Sabonis) and Silas (Melson), but we couldn’t get enough going on the offensive end to overcome it.”

Sabonis carried the Zags with 20 points and 16 rebounds but Wiltjer suffered through a dismal shooting night (2 for 17). Melson connected on four 3-pointers and scored 12 points. Kyle Dranginis added 11 points and seven rebounds. Josh Perkins finished with nine points and seven assists.

“Any time you can’t help your team get the win it’s a bad feeling,” Wiltjer said. “We couldn’t get stops. We couldn’t contain the little guy (Moore) on the pick-and-roll. They scored some key baskets and we couldn’t execute. Credit to their defense, they made it tough for us.”

The Zags rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to take a 41-36 lead on a Sabonis’ dunk. GU was still on top 44-40 after Wiltjer’s lone second-half field goal with 11:45 left.

Nic Moore took over, hitting a mid-range jumper and setting up Ben Moore and Jordan Tolbert for easy buckets to give the Mustangs a 52-46 lead.

Gonzaga left Nic Moore unguarded at the top of the key and he buried a 3-pointer to extend SMU’s lead to 57-49. SMU led by as many as 11 but three baskets by Sabonis cut the deficit to six. SMU made three free throws in the final 70 seconds to seal the victory.

Few noted that playing four straight road games, the last one in a packed house against a ranked opponent, wasn’t an ideal setup.

“On short prep, we got in here late (Friday) night, it was just dumb scheduling,” Few said. “But now we have to put it away, literally have to wash it away and get ready to try to win a league championship.”

Gonzaga made just 38 percent of its shots, including 10 of 32 beyond the arc. The Zags attempted just seven free throws and were outscored by SMU by nine points at the stripe.

Gonzaga’s smooth first-half start gave way to a rocky finish. The Zags trailed 8-2 early but took the lead with a 15-4 run fueled by 3-pointers from Perkins, Dranginis and Melson.

The Zags went up 26-18 after a 9-0 spurt, capped by a Dranginis’ 3 with 6:40 remaining. At that point, Gonzaga had eight assists on nine field goals.

SMU dominated the rest of the half as Gonzaga’s 3-point shooters began missing the mark. The Zags led 26-25 when Sabonis pulled down a rebound in traffic. His inadvertent elbow caught a SMU player in the neck and Sabonis was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul. Nic Moore made both free throws to give SMU a 27-26 lead.

Tolbert added a three-point play to extend SMU’s lead to 30-27 at half.

The Mustangs shot nearly 54 percent in the second half. Nic Moore scored 18 points and handed out seven assists in the final 20 minutes.