March Madness: Gonzaga beats UCLA on OT buzzer-beater to keep perfect season alive
No. 1 overall seed will play 2nd-seeded Baylor for NCAA men's basketball title
The shot by Jalen Suggs — perfect!
The Gonzaga freshman banked in a shot at the buzzer from just inside the half-court logo Saturday night to lift the Zags to a 93-90 overtime win over UCLA and move them one win away from an undefeated season and a NCAA title.
WATCH | Jalen Suggs' OT buzzer-beater sends Gonzaga into title game:
This Final Four thriller was the best game of the tournament, and, considering the stakes, it served up possibly the best finish in the history of March Madness — a banker from near midcourt to keep a perfect season alive.
"Every day in shootaround before the game we shoot half-courters," Suggs said. "I haven't been making my half-courters, but I got it with confidence, put it up. It's crazy. I can't come to words right now."
After the shot went in, Suggs ran to the mostly empty press row, jumped up and pumped his fists a few times. The refs checked to make sure he got the shot off before the buzzer sounded. He did, and the Bulldogs moved onto Monday night's final, where they'll play Baylor for the title.
They are the first team to bring an undefeated record into the championship game since Larry Bird and Indiana State in 1979.
Even without Suggs' shot, it would've been hard to beat this game for pure excitement.
It featured 15 ties and 19 lead changes and an 11th-seeded UCLA team that simply wouldn't give in. Even though they lost, the Bruins snapped a streak of 27 straight double-digit wins by Mark Few's juggernaut.
The Bruins (22-10) were the first team to lead Gonzaga in the second half over five games of tournament play and, in fact, had a chance to win at the end of regulation.
With the game tied at 81, Johnny Juzang was taking it hard to the hoop in the final seconds, when Zags forward Drew Timme, playing with four fouls, stepped into the paint, planted his feet and took a charge.
Gonzaga called time and tried a Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner full-court pass with 1.1 seconds left to try to win in regulation. It didn't connect. Five minutes later, Suggs may have very possibly knocked Laettner's shot down a spot on the list of all-timers.
Baylor cruise past Houston
Nearly two decades ago, Scott Drew decided to leave his comfort zone at tiny Valparaiso for the scandal-plagued basketball program at Baylor, explaining to his father that there was nowhere for the Bears to go but up.
Now, they're one win away from the top.
Led by Jared Butler and the rest of their brilliant backcourt, a defence that refused to give Houston an inch, and a coach intent on making the most of his first trip to the Final Four, the Bears roared to a 78-59 victory Saturday night in their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament semifinals in 71 long years.
Marcus Sasser had 20 points for the cold-shooting Cougars (28-4), whose dream path to their first Final Four since 1984 — they faced teams seeded 15th, 10th, 11th and 12th along the way — ended with a whimper against a team focused squarely on this night since the moment last year's tournament was cancelled because of the pandemic.
For Drew, the wait had been even longer.
He took over a program 18 years ago embroiled in arguably the biggest controversy in the history of the sport: the graphic shooting death of player Patrick Dennehy, his teammate Devon Dotson pleading guilty to his murder, attempts by then-coach Dave Bliss to cover it all up, and NCAA sanctions that lasted well into Drew's own tenure.
Well, there were a few things Drew probably didn't picture.
Instead of 70,000 fans reaching to the rafters, the Bears were cheered in the lower bowl by thousands of cardboard cutouts — from the late Georgetown coach John Thompson to New Mexico State mascot Pistol Pete — due to measures against COVID-19 that have forced them to live in a bubble for the last three weeks.
The roughly 8,000 fans that were allowed through the doors, socially distanced in a vast ocean of blue seats, provided a muted soundtrack to the blowout inside the cavernous home of the Indianapolis Colts.
The only cheering? That came from those in green and gold.
The Bears controlled the game from the jump, unleashing a 14-3 run fueled by the kind of crisp passing, silky shooting and dastardly defence that made them unbeatable before a 23-day COVID-19 pause late in the regular season.
