Gonzaga holds off South Carolina

Strong and athletic at 6’9, 230 pounds, Williams was the exact type of player Gonzaga never had before.

Or blame the missed layups and the missed free throws. Thornwell made the first free throw.

After ripping the ball away in traffic, he kicked it out to Theo Pinson to run out the final 4 seconds on the clock.

Gonzaga is a number one seed for a reason and having only lost one game the entire year will give them tons of confidence heading into the Final Four as they try to capture the school’s first national championship.

For much of Monday night’s game, it was reasonable to believe Gonzaga was going to win a title.

It was such a special month of achievement – SC had lost six of its final nine games before the NCAAs and many wondered if it would even receive its first tournament bid since 2004 – that Martin needed a few moments at the podium to fight through tears thinking of his guys.

A year after Villanova snatched the title from the Tar Heels’ hands in the closing seconds, the referees did their best to hijack this one, too.

“I was out of it”. “Josh Perkins did a job being really patient and not fouling on the shot”. Their momentum eventually slowed during conference play, as they went 11-7, but the team ended up with 24 wins, hopeful for their tournament chances-no Power Five conference team had ever missed out on the tournament after winning that many games.

“He didn’t sulk. He didn’t just think about himself”.

And if the Bulldogs can play 40 more minutes like the last 40 minutes, they will be better than everyone. The saying is true that defense wins ball games and the Gamecocks have it in spades. They have a reputation for being soft. It is what it is.

Perhaps if he was not hurt, Williams-Goss, who scored 23 points in a semifinal win over SC, would have been hoisting the Most Outstanding Player trophy.

Williams-Goss, a second-team All-American, led the Bulldogs to a 14-point lead in the second half but it disappeared quickly as the Gamecocks (26-11) went on a 14-point run to grab a 67-65 lead with 7:06 to play. Chris Silva had 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Make it 80-75 UNC, with the difference a couple of Justin Jackson threes. Gonzaga committed 12 turnovers and the Gamecocks had just five.

“He is tough enough to make them both without playing a second in the second half, I mean, that’s pretty ballsy”, Lloyd said. That’s the great thing about this guy, that he’ll help you grow as a basketball player and as a person at the same time without you even really realizing it.

You need not just success but sustained success, which are different things. There are endless reasons why Gonzaga came up short in the national championship. The Ducks are led by Junior forward Dillon Brooks who was recently named Pac 12 player of the year. With 2:50 left in the first half, they held a seven-point lead.

The shift is slight but meaningful in games where the spread is close – North Carolina is favored by 1 point and that means some gamblers who want to back Gonzaga might prefer to just take slightly better money line odds. It took him 19 shots to get to those 18 points, too. In the chaotic closing seconds, Williams-Goss was practically in Carter’s jersey as he dribbled around trying to get off a tying 3-pointer. But as they climbed farther into the bracket, the ability to get stops on defense often led to their demise.

And flawless shots they were.

That team was Gonzaga.

A former high school math teacher in Miami, Martin’s press conferences during the NCAA Tournament, particularly the ones in Phoenix, have been an inspiring combination of basketball and lessons on life and working together.

“It’s never easy when it ends, especially if you have a great team or if you had a great season”, Miller said after the season-ending defeat.

The Zags’ big break occurred at the 6:45 mark when freshman forward Zach Collins heaved up an ugly three point attempt that clanged hard off the iron and – for a moment – seemed as though it would spark another Gamecock transition and extension of South Carolina’s run.