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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) — And to think some people said they might not make it to March Madness.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs laughed about that as easily as they crushed an exhausted Kansas team on Saturday, beating the Jayhawks 89-68 to return to the Sweet 16 for a national-leading ninth straight time.
Directed by Anton Watson With 21 points, fifth-seeded Gonzaga was almost as good in the second half of this game as it has been in the second half of the season. The Zags scored 15 straight points to start the half to turn this game into a rout on an afternoon where basically everyone wearing a navy jersey was a star.
They improved to 16-2 since Jan. 18, with the only two losses coming to Saint Mary’s, the team that beat Gonzaga for the West Coast Conference title but was bounced from the tournament Friday night.
“At the end of December it looked like maybe it wasn’t going to happen,” he said. mark few, with his hair still wet from the rain he received in the locker room after the game. “But I’ll give them credit. These guys stayed coachable. We figured it out.”
Once Few dries out, he and the Zags, who are in their 25th consecutive NCAA tournament, will prepare for their routine trip to the second weekend to play the winner of Sunday’s game between Purdue and Utah State .
The Zags (27-7) made their first five 3-pointers of the second half, without missing from long range until 1:30 remained and the game had entered extended garbage time. They shot 60% from the floor and 53% from 3. Ben Gregg Even so, he managed to stand out: he was 6 of 6 and finished with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Big man Graham Ike he also had 15 and nine, going toe-to-toe with KU’s Hunter Dickinson, who finished with a quiet 15 points.
Making all the Bulldogs look good was Ryan Nembhardwho wasted a poor shooting night (1-for-6) and finished with 12 assists to become the program’s career leader in that category.
“Ryan has been at the highest level for the last eight weeks,” Few said. “He’s just put the pedal to the metal and is making great decisions.”
Kansas was exhausted and facing an early start after an emotional, hard-fought victory over Samford on Thursday night. Coach Bill Self said he knew he was in trouble when he headed to his bench midway through the game, looking to make a substitution.
“There aren’t many times where you take a guy out, he’s sitting during a three-minute timeout and I’m like, ‘Can you come back in?’ and he says, ‘I need more time,'” Self said.
Tired legs formed a painfully familiar scene for fans of the fourth-seeded Jayhawks (23-11). They have struggled with depth, shooting, consistency and injuries; Top scorer Kevin McCullar Jr. (knee) was out of the tournament. During Gonzaga’s 15-0 run, the Jayhawks missed 10 straight shots.
Gonzaga eventually extended the streak to 32-4; Kansas shot 2 of 23 during that stretch.
“It’s a formula for disaster when you can’t make shots and you can’t stop them,” said Kansas forward KJ Adams Jr., who finished with 10 points.
Some of those misses looked strangely ugly, including when Dickinson, who missed the Big 12 Tournament with a dislocated shoulder, grabbed a rebound under the bucket and looked poised for an easy bucket, but could barely get the ball to the rim.
“Hunt gave us everything he had,” Self said. “But today there was a tired guy.”
For at least 22 minutes, this game lived up to expectations: a rare matchup between beloved power programs. There were eight leader changes. At one point late in the first half, the teams combined to make nine straight shots from the field, trading leads almost every time.
Gonzaga kept it up. Kansas just couldn’t.
The Zags won both of their games in Salt Lake City by 21. The first game against McNeese could have been expected. That the second one was so easy, even against a flawed KU team, was a surprise. Nothing else about this team playing well into March should be all that shocking.
“We’ve always instilled in them that if we come to this, we’ll know how to win,” Few said. “This is not something new for our program.”
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
The Zags improved to 10-3 in tournament games in Salt Lake City. Their next stop is Detroit, where they have never played a tournament game.
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