Texas makes shots count in crunch time to send Gonzaga home early | 3 takeaways

PORTLAND – Three takeaways at the buzzer from No. 3 seed Gonzaga’s 74-68 loss to 11th-seeded Texas on Saturday at the Moda Center.

Texas drains timely 3s

Texas only made five 3-pointers, but they came at opportune times.

Jordan Pope, an Oregon State transfer, hit late triples with 5:30 and 2:36 remaining, the latter extending the Longhorns’ lead to 69-64.

Camden Heide’s lone points of the game provided the dagger. He took a pass in the corner and connected on a 3-pointer with 14.7 ticks left to boost Texas’ lead to 72-68.

Gonzaga had another cold shooting night behind the arc, making 4 of 16 (25%). The Longhorns were 5 of 15 with Pope accounting for three 3s.

Big man battle

Graham Ike generally got the better of the battle of the bigs against Texas 7-foot counterpart Matas Vokietaitis in the first half. Ike scored 11 points and handed out three assists when the Longhorns brought an extra defender.

Vokietaitis didn’t have much impact until scoring five of his seven first-half points in the closing minutes. He had seven points, four rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes.

However, the Longhorns got quality minutes from reserve forward Nic Codie, who scored twice in the paint when Vokietaitis was on the bench. Codie, who averages just 3.7 points, had six points in 11 first-half minutes.

Ike picked up his fourth foul with 6:15 remaining but he kept scoring. His basket with 3:01 left cut the Longhorns’ lead to 66-64 and his dunk trimmed the deficit to 69-68 with 40 seconds left.

Ike made 10 of 22 shots, 4 of 4 free throws and finished with 25 points, three rebounds and three assists.

Vokietaitis did some damage in the second half as well. He finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and two assists.

Costly closing stretch

The biggest turning point in Gonzaga’s opening-round win over Kennesaw State was the Zags’ 10-0 run to close the first half and grab a 33-27 lead.

It was roughly the opposite against the Longhorns, who were down 28-20 when coach Sean Miller called a timeout with 4:20 remaining. Miller called a play for Vokietaitis, who had been limited to just two points. The big man scored easily inside while being fouled but missed the free throw.

Texas dialed up two more lobs to Vokietaitis, who converted one for a layup and made GU pay for a triple team with a nice pass to Chendall Weaver for a layup.

Texas made its last seven shots and rattled off the last seven points of the half to take a 35-33 advantage at the break. Despite trailing for 14 minutes, 35 seconds of the half, the Longhorns had the lead.

Vokietaitis didn’t touch the ball too much prior to the lob passes, but it seemed to get him and his teammates settled in at the offensive end.