Gonzaga’s late rally comes up short in 81-76 loss to No. 1-seeded Houston

WICHITA, Kan. – There was no ideal start Saturday for Gonzaga, two days after racing in front of Georgia 27-3 and rolling to an NCAA Tournament first-round win.

It was roughly the opposite against top-seeded Houston, which built a 14-point lead in the first 13 minutes.

But the Zags nearly made up for it with a frantic comeback in the closing minutes that had 14,168 roaring inside Intrust Bank Arena and made the Cougars sweat out an 81-76 round-of-32 victory.

“It ended up being just a great, great basketball game, especially the way our guys fought their way back into it,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I’m so proud of how they hung with it, hung with it, hung with it, and gave ourselves a chance right there at the end. That’s not easy.

“I’m telling you, Houston was everything and more than we thought they were going to be. Especially the opening 10 minutes and then to start of the second half.”

There weren’t many dry eyes in Gonzaga’s locker room as players processed the season-ending loss. Eighth-seeded Gonzaga (26-9) dropped to 0-11 against No. 1 seeds saw their streak of Sweet 16 appearances end at nine. Houston (32-4) moves on to face No. 4 Purdue on Friday in Indianapolis.

“They’re a tremendous role model for everybody,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said of GU’s program. “The consistency that they’ve had – that’s why winning the game is significant. It’s not just winning the game. It’s beating a great program like Gonzaga.

“That was a high-level 1-8 game because they were not an 8 seed. That was a game that would have been awesome in the Elite Eight or Final Four.”

Forward Graham Ike scored 23 of his 27 points in the second half to keep the Zags in striking range.

“Maybe 30 more seconds,” Ike said of GU’s furious rally that trimmed a 10-point deficit with 2:35 left to 77-76 with 21 seconds remaining. “A couple of mishaps in the first half, giving up second-chance points, but credit to those guys, they’re a good team. Maybe just 30 more seconds, who knows?”

Ike’s three-point play with 1:18 left brought Gonzaga within 76-72 before Houston’s Mylik Wilson hit 1 of 2 free throws.

Then it got really interesting. Ike made a pair of free throws, GU’s pressure defense forced a turnover and Khalif Battle added two free throws to cut Houston’s lead to 77-76.

Houston guard LJ Cryer, who matched his career-high with 30 points, made two free throws and Battle’s 3-point attempt from the corner was blocked by Ja’Vier Francis.

“Our initial look was to pitch it to Ryan (Nembhard),” Few said. “We had really good success with that as an in-game play. They did a good job blowing that up. Then the next look was ‘KB’ coming off. They did a great job of playing that physical and blowing that up.

“I think it was kind of a loose ball fumble, and he did his best to get it off. It’s probably on me. We should have run something in the middle of the floor, but that play had been really, really good for us.”

Before the late-game drama, the Zags trailed by at least seven points throughout the second half, mainly because they couldn’t string together enough stops defensively to take advantage of their 49-point second half.

Houston put up 46 points in the closing half despite sputtering in the closing minutes. The Cougars finished at 47% from the field and 50% on 3-pointers.

“Lot of credit to them, they hit some tough shots,” said Zags sophomore forward Braden Huff, who finished with 11 points. “Cryer hit a lot of tough 3s and their bigs, we knew they’re physical getting second-chance opportunities. They’re not easy to guard.”

The Cougars took off at the opening tip, built a 28-14 lead and forced the Zags to play catch-up the rest of the way.

Gonzaga used an 8-0 run, the last five points by Battle, to pull within six and force a Houston timeout. The margin could have been tighter, but the Zags had three shots from close range that didn’t fall.

The Cougars responded with Joseph Tugler’s tough jump hook in the paint and forced Battle into a contested jumper to take a 35-27 lead into the break.

Cryer nailed four 3s and scored 16 of the Cougars’ 35 points.

The Cougars, until a few late miscues, kept GU’s transition game largely in check. The Zags finished with just eight points off Houston’s seven turnovers and GU only had six fastbreak points.

Houston had 13 offensive rebounds and piled up a 20-6 edge in second-chance points.

Nembhard finished with 10 points and 11 assists. Battle added three 3-pointers and 17 points.