Gonzaga all smiles after comeback win over BYU in WCC Tournament title game

Jalen Suggs’ play and permanent postgame grin said it all.

The freshman point guard took over just when No. 1 Gonzaga needed it most in Tuesday’s 88-78 comeback victory over BYU at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

“Man, I haven’t stopped smiling since the confetti started falling,” Suggs said during a Zoom call with the media.

There was plenty to appreciate in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship game, from Suggs’ late-game magic to BYU’s inspired effort. More in the latest Gonzaga rewind.

Freshman phenom

It barely raised an eyebrow at the time because it happened during a team scrimmage at Kraziness in the Kennel inside a nearly empty McCarthey Athletic Center in November.

Suggs offered a glimpse into his competitive nature, scoring 10 of his team’s last 19 points to spark a 45-36 win. Fast forward to Tuesday night and Suggs accounted for eight points in a decisive 9-0 run that put the Zags in front 82-73 with 1:26 remaining.

“I’ve known Jalen now for three years or whatever,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of the highest-ranked recruit in program history. “One thing he is, he’s a winner at the top of everything, but he’s a highly competitive guy and he gets competing at the highest level.

“Sometimes when you get punched in the face the easy thing is blame other things and this and that. Jalen and our whole group didn’t do that. We owned it at halftime (trailing 53-41), all of us did, staff included, and they came out and responded. So far in his career, in football, basketball and everything, the bigger the moment, the better he is. That’s a great sign for us moving forward.”

Few noted that Suggs’ clutch 3-pointers were big, but the 6-foot-4 guard’s defensive play, particularly off the ball, were “gigantic” and an example of plays the team didn’t make in the first half.

Suggs has put up big numbers against Gonzaga’s toughest competition. He had 24 points and eight rebounds versus Kansas and 27 and seven against Iowa. He averaged 21 points, five rebounds and 4.3 assists in three wins over BYU.

“He’s a good leader. He’s invested in making the right play,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “He’s long and athletic. We challenged him to make some shots in the second half and he did. He’s a terrific, terrific player.”

And a dream chaser.

“I’ve been dreaming of playing college basketball in March all my life,” Suggs said. “I’ve been practicing on my Little Tikes hoop these exact moments, these exact situations.

“For all of them to play out, it was crazy going back and thinking about it.”

Suggs is No. 1 in the player rankings on Evan Miyakawa’s analytics website. He is the only player in the past 19 seasons with averages of 20 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 2.8 steals per 40 minutes, according to Miyakawa.

Cougars show potential

BYU nearly had another entry on its list of improbable wins over Gonzaga.

The Cougars won three straight at the McCarthey Athletic Center from 2015-17, including a 79-71 victory that ended Gonzaga’s bid at unbeaten regular season in 2017. They handled GU late last season in Provo, Utah, when the Zags were poised to be ranked No. 1.

BYU was nearly flawless in the opening half, scoring 53 points on 68% shooting. Gonzaga, facing its biggest deficit of the season (14 points), trailed for a season-high 30-plus minutes.

The Zags extended their defensive pressure in the second half and the Cougars managed just 25 points on 28% shooting. BYU made just 2 of 15 3-pointers in the closing half.

“I hope everybody took notice of just how good this BYU team is,” Few said. “They have rim protection with (Matt) Haarms, shooters on the perimeter that are really starting to shoot the ball better and play better, excellent ball-screen readers and decision-makers in (Alex) Barcello and (Brandon) Averette.

“That’s a very good team. They pushed us to the brink and I give them a lot of credit.”

The Cougars (20-6) are No. 20 in the NET rankings and projected as a seventh seed by ESPN. Gonzaga (26-0) is the fifth undefeated team to enter the NCAA Tournament since Indiana ran the table in 1976.