Texas makes key shots down the stretch, sends Gonzaga home with 74-68 loss in Round of 32 | Analysis
PORTLAND – Gonzaga had gone 10 years without losing to a double-digit seed at the NCAA Tournament.
The Zags went 39 minutes, 46 seconds without giving up a field goal to Camden Heide on Saturday afternoon.
Players and coaches may spend the next six months lamenting how the junior forward got open for a back-breaking 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining at the Moda Center.
Texas was leading by a point when Tramon Mark dribbled into the paint, trailed by Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley. A second defender, Tyon Grant-Foster, arrived to help on the Texas guard, freeing Heide up from the right corner. Mark rifled a pass to Heide, who caught the ball above his shoulder, readjusted and drilled a 3-pointer to give Texas a four-point cushion.
In a game where neither team could gain much separation, Heide’s shot gave the Longhorns enough to hold off the Zags for a 74-68 victory, ending GU’s season one game short of a trip to the Sweet 16.
“Well, it was a heck of a basketball game,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I think we were both kind of trading punches down the stretch, but I think both teams were having a hard time getting stops down the stretch, and we just couldn’t get one on that last possession.
“I would have liked to have seen if we could have capitalized and hit our coverage, but Heide hit a big three, and that was about really what it came down to, was kind of just our lack of being able to get stops down the stretch.”
Gonzaga had leaned into its defense since junior forward Braden Huff went down with a knee injury in mid-January, but Texas exploited the Zags in a way few others have in recent months.
Heide’s dagger will be the moment that hangs over the Zags, but the Longhorns made 51.7% of their shots from the field and scored a rare win over GU in the paint, finishing with a 46-38 advantage. Texas became only the third team to clear 70 points against Gonzaga since Huff’s injury and the second to make better than 50% of its shots.
Graham Ike willed Gonzaga most of the game, scoring 25 points on 10-of-22 shooting in his final college game, but Texas made opportune shots at key points in the first and second half.
There was Jordan Pope’s 3-pointer with 5 minutes, 30 seconds remaining to open up a six-point lead. There was Pope’s triple at the 2-minute, 36-second mark, restoring a two-possession Texas lead after Gonzaga converted on consecutive trips down. Before those, the senior guard made a go-ahead 3-pointer on Texas’ final possession of the first half, sending the Longhorns to break with a two-point lead.
Pope, who started his career at Oregon State, finished with 17 points and accounted for three of the nine total 3-pointers made by Gonzaga and Texas.
“I don’t know if there’s too many guards that are playing in the tournament that are playing at a higher level than Jordan Pope,” Texas coach Sean Miller said. “He means a lot to our team, and what he’s really mastered is that he controls the game and he’s our point guard, but he adds such a strong scoring punch that he can change the game from the 3-point line.”
The Longhorns had three other double-digit scorers, with center Matas Vokietaitis scoring 17 points, Nic Codie scoring 12 and Dailyn Swain adding 11.
Outside of Ike, Jalen Warley was the only other GU player to finish in double figures, scoring 10 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists .
Ike and Warley won’t be on Gonzaga’s roster next fall – nor will senior transfers Adam Miller or Tyon Grant-Foster – but Few’s team got contributions from multiple players who’ll be eligible to return as the Zags make their transition to the Pac-12.
That group includes freshmen Davis Fogle and Mario Saint-Supery, who had 15 combined points and seven assists. It also includes junior wing Emmanuel Innocenti, who finished with nine points, six rebounds and three assists.
Most importantly, there’s a good chance it will include Huff, who was averaging 17.8 points before missing the final 17 games with his knee injury. The Zags took three losses without Huff on the floor but still earned their 28th consecutive NCAA bid and won a game in the tournament for the 17th straight year.
“It was just an awesome, awesome group to work with this year,” Few said. “I’ve done this as a head coach now I think 28 years, and the amount of adversity that we went through with all the injuries and, we lose a guy like Braden Huff, I think we lost the most efficient offensive player in all of college basketball, and lost Jalen for a while, loss Graham for a while, we had to reinvent how we played and the group was just unbelievable with how they just hung with it and hung with it and just kept winning games. So really proud of them.”