‘All of a sudden a lid was on the hoop’: Gonzaga blows big halftime lead, falls to Kentucky 90-89 in overtime

SEATTLE – Gonzaga got it half right. And that wasn’t nearly enough.

The seventh-ranked Zags played one of their finest halves of the season, led by 16 and seemed to be in complete command. They weren’t. No. 4 Kentucky ate up most of that deficit by the midpoint of the second half and a tight, intense contest most expected from the opening tip was finally on.

The Wildcats stayed on GU’s heels until finally pulling even with just under one minute left in regulation. Both teams had good looks on their last possession but couldn’t convert.

Kentucky built an eight-point lead in overtime and hung on for a 90-89 comeback victory Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena.

“All of sudden a lid was on the hoop,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “We had a lot of really good looks, ones we made in the first half and we’ve made all year. Even the free throws, we missed a bunch of front ends. And we gave them life and they did a great job.

“They came roaring back and got a lot of confidence on their offensive end. Our offense affected our defense a little bit and we lost a little bit of our intensity and started kind of deviating from the plan, but it was a great basketball game.”

Kentucky (8-1) ended Gonzaga’s streak of 175 consecutive wins when leading by double figures at halftime.

The Zags (7-2) remain winless at Climate Pledge Arena, dropping to 0-3 after falling to UConn last season and Alabama in Dec. 2021. GU’s Battle in Seattle record slipped to 9-6 and the Zags have dropped their last four against top-five opponents.

Wildcats coach Mark Pope earned just his second win in 11 tries against the Zags. He was 1-9 vs. GU in previous coaching stops at Utah Valley and BYU.

Gonzaga sputtered in crunch time for the second time this season. For the second time, the result was an overtime loss. GU led by eight at half before losing to West Virginia 86-78 in OT in its Battle 4 Atlantis opener in the Bahamas.

The Zags couldn’t have asked for a better opening 20 minutes against the Wildcats.

Ryan Nembhard flawlessly directed the offense again, Graham Ike dominated in the lane and the Zags had the upper hand in nearly every statistical category.

Gonzaga hung 50 points on the Wildcats in the first half with contributions coming from all nine players that saw time. It looked a lot like GU’s 89-85 win over the Wildcats at Rupp Arena with Nembhard and Ike on the same wavelength in ball-screen actions, and Ike added a 3-pointer a slick pump fake and driving layup for good measure.

Ike had 18 points at the break and Nembhard was nearing a double-double with eight points and seven assists. Khalif Battle ended a streak of 12 straight 3-point misses with a trey in the first 45 seconds. His flying one-hand slam on the break brought the loudest ovation of the half. It added up to a 50-34 advantage – Kentucky’s largest deficit since trailing the Zags by 16 at the Spokane Arena in Nov. 2022.

Kentucky, playing without starting point guard Lamont Butler, responded by controlling the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Wildcats put together a 16-2 burst, capped by Koby Brea’s 3-pointer that trimmed Gonzaga’s lead to 58-55.

“The biggest thing is we dried up offensively in the first nine minutes of the half we had nine points,” Few said, “which is very unlike us.”

Gonzaga wasn’t able to slow down Kentucky’s offense. Meanwhile, UK bottled up Nembhard and Ike for most of the closing half and overtime.

“They just changed the matchup, (did) a couple things differently in ball screens,” said Nembhard, who finished with 13 points and 10 assists. “But I missed some good looks from 3.”

Senior forward Ben Gregg stepped up with seven consecutive points to push GU’s lead back to seven. Dusty Stromer’s steal led to a Nembhard transition layup and Kerr Kriisa, who started in place of Butler, was injured on the play and didn’t return.

Kentucky wouldn’t go away and pulled even at 79 on Andrew Carr’s field goal with 58.1 seconds remaining. Ike misfired on a short bank shot and Brea missed a jumper on Kentucky’s last possession.

“I just felt like I was missing some good looks,” Ike said.

Kentucky opened overtime with dunks by Otega Oweh and Amari Williams. The Zags missed their first five shots and trailed by eight before Stromer and Nembhard drained 3-pointers – after GU had gone 0 of 9 from deep in the second half and 0 of 3 in the first few minutes of the extra session – to bring GU within 86-85.

Carr converted a putback basket – the Zags owned the glass in the first half, but Kentucky turned the tables for the rest of the game – and Jaxson Robinson hit a floater, but Nolan Hickman answered with a long 3 to cut Kentucky’s lead to 90-89 with 4.7 seconds left.

Carr, who finished with a team-high 19 points, missed a pair of free throws, but the Wildcats knocked the ball away from Stromer and GU didn’t get a shot attempt before the buzzer sounded.

Ike finished with 28 points and Gregg contributed 14 points off the bench.