SPOKANE, Washington — Once again, in the closing minutes, BYU led a nationally ranked opponent with a chance to spring a big upset.
And once again, the Cougars couldn’t close the deal.
In BYU’s final game at The Kennel as members of the West Coast Conference, No. 16 Gonzaga rallied late, again, to earn an 88-81 victory over the Cougars Saturday night.
In January, BYU lost two one-point decisions to Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s at the Marriott Center.
Coach Mark Pope has seen this movie too many times this season — and it features a terrible ending for his players. How much more can these guys take?
“They’re devastated. It’s how you are. You earn the right to be devastated and these guys put their heart out there. We just weren’t good enough,” Pope said. “So much frustration right now … I thought the guys battled hard. They competed. I thought they were super engaged the whole game. I thought they stayed together.
“There were guys that will be doing some personal soul-searching that contributed tonight … It’s really, really painful. We have the greatest kids in the world and this is an incredibly valuable experience for them and they’ll learn. They’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Right now, it’s so freaking painful.”
Gonzaga coach Mark Few was happy that his team survived another scare, after beating the Cougars in Provo 75-74 last month.
“What a ball game. That was an intense game from the jump. It always is with BYU. Again, we found a way to win,” he said. “The guys did a great job of sticking with it because there were stretches there that it wasn’t going good for the squad and it wasn’t going good for particular guys. They didn’t hang their heads. They kept fighting and then gave us a chance to pull it out in the end. We had a little ‘Kennel Magic’ there.”
Despite being in foul trouble throughout the night, the Cougars, sporting black uniforms, led by as many as six points, 63-57, with 8:38 left.
At that point, the raucous, sellout crowd of 6,000 Zags fans were nervous.
But Gonzaga went on a 9-0 run to take its first lead since late in the first half, 66-63.
BYU (16-12, 6-7) retook the lead — 71-68 — with 4:28 left after six straight points by Fousseyni Traore, then went back up 73-71 after a layup by Atiki Ally Atiki.
But over the final eight minutes, Gonzaga (21-5, 10-2) made a bunch of big plays, including tap-out offensive rebounds by Anton Watson and a couple of 3-pointers by Julian Strawther, who poured in a game-high 26 points. Gonzaga All-America Drew Timme added 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
“It was those three offensive rebounds right at the very end that they kicked out for three 3s,” said BYU guard Spencer Johnson, who finished with 17 points about the difference in the outcome. “That was pretty much the game. We were up the whole game and then that happened. We could never recover.”
Strawther is the same guy that buried a game-winning 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds remaining in Gonzaga’s one-point win over the Cougars in Provo last month.
After Nolan Hickman missed a 3-pointer, Watson tapped the ball out to Rasir Bolton, who buried a 3 with 2:21 left and the Zags took a 77-73 lead.
“We were down big on the glass again to these guys and we ended up outrebounding them. And they only made one 3 in the second half,” Few said. “(Watson’s rebounds) were obviously huge. We were able to convert a couple of 3s off them. He was really, really active.”
With 37.1 seconds remaining, BYU’s Jaxson Robinson fouled Strawther on a 3-point attempt. Strawther buried all three free throws to give the Zags an 80-75 advantage that all but sealed the win.
“He’s very confident in that stroke of his. He’s big. He’s almost 6-foot-8. He has a high shooting pocket,” Few said of Strawther’s 3-point shooting. “A normal closeout really affects him and he has that deep range. He knows I have confidence in him and his teammates have confidence in him.”
As for Pope, he liked how his young players battled, two days after a humbling 92-80 loss at Pepperdine. But he knows his team still has a long way to go to win these kinds of games.
“It’s hard for young guys. It’s just hard. You learn this by repetition after repetition after repetition. That’s why you play juniors and seniors. That’s who wins,” Pope said. “What’s fortunate for us is we have young guys that are learning huge lessons. Atiki and Fouss got to experience that tonight, where the game is on the line and we have to grab the rebound.
“It doesn’t matter what it takes. You have to go do it. That’s a lesson that the Zags — they’re playing two super senior bigs and we’re playing two young bigs. That’s just the lesson you learn and it’s super painful.”
Traore finished with 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting and played much of the second half with three fouls. Atiki, who played late with four fouls, had six points. Noah Waterman and Rudi Williams came off the bench to score 12 and 11 points, respectively. Robinson had 10 points.
Johnson hit 3 of 5 3-pointers and 6 of 11 from the floor. He also grabbed three rebounds and dished out seven assists.
How were the Cougars to push the Zags to the limit?
“It’s something we talked about as a team. We’re learning and we are getting better,” he said. “Something we talked about before this game was, hey, no matter what the outcome is, we are going to fight and they are going to know that we were here. We’re going to hit them, we’re going to be physical. In terms of that, we did a really good job.”
Gonzaga raced out to a 6-0 lead to open the game and eventually went up by nine points, 14-5.
But BYU climbed back into the game by hitting a bunch of 3-pointers. The Cougars hit seven 3s in the first half, including bank shots by Dallin Hall and Johnson. Waterman hit back-to-back shots in the first half, including a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left, to lift BYU to a 37-34 edge at intermission.
The Cougars didn’t allow a field goal by the Zags over the final 5:21 of the first half.
BYU led for much of the second half but, just like in Provo, it couldn’t close it out.
How does Johnson describe playing in The Kennel?
“It’s crazy. It’s one of the elite basketball venues,” he said. “I just wish we could have gotten the win tonight.”
BYU hosts Santa Clara Thursday.
TIP-INS: Robinson was back in the starting lineup for the first time since a Jan. 21 loss at San Francisco … Robinson has made a 3-pointer in 15 consecutive games, tied for the 13th longest streak in a single season in program history … Gonzaga out-rebounded BYU 34-33 … The Zags were 26 of 34 from the free-throw line while the Cougars were 11 of 12.