Legendary golfer Bobby Jones once said, “There’s golf. And there’s tournament golf.” Gonzaga showed Thursday night that college basketball can have a similar axiom. There’s experience; and then there’s tournament experience.
Eighteenth-ranked St. John’s trotted out four senior starters for the second-round NCAA Tournament game at the Pepsi Center, and uncommonly high number these days for a team in one of the six power conferences. But Gonzaga, although younger, had all the NCAA Tournament experience.
It showed.
Getting 24 points from junior guard Marquise Carter, the 11th-seeded Bulldogs (25-9) seemed to hit from everywhere and claimed an 86-71 upset victory over the Southeast Region’s No. 6 seed and became the second slayer of a beast from the Big East in Denver. Earlier, 13th-seeded Morehead State sent No. 4 seed Louisville packing.
A crowd of 19,216 watched Gonzaga advance to face third-seeded Brigham Young in a 5:45 p.m. Saturday third-round game here.
Gonzaga is making its 13th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the 14th overall. St. John’s (21-12) has now been to 27 of these, but this is the first since 2002. Thus, every player on the Red Storm roster was new to this.
The Bulldogs took a 43-32 lead into halftime and then came out firing. Making the extra pass to get St. John’s matchup zone leaning the wrong way, Gonzaga hit four of its first five shots after the break, three from 3-point range.
After seven years of watching Gonzaga as basketball analyst for ESPN and ABC, first-year St. John’s coach Steve Lavin had been concerned about Gonzaga’s length. His fears were warranted. The Bulldogs controlled the boards.
Almost five minutes had elapsed before Gonzaga took its first lead, 15-14 on a 3-pointer by 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Elias Harris from the right wing. The Zags, er, Bulldogs were just getting started.
Beating St. John’s at its own game with transition baskets off open-floor turnovers, Gonzaga reeled off a 12-0 run that include a determined three-point play the old-fashioned way when Bulldogs forward Elias Harris was fouled while darting through the paint but somehow managed to push the ball headed toward the basket as he was falling.
It went in.
A fastbreak layup by Steven Gray then followed a Red Storm turnover.
Timeout, St. John’s.
Although Gonzaga never trailed after taking that 15-14 lead, St. John’s active defense made life miserable for Gonzaga ballhandlers during stretches. The Red Storm employ a match-up zone with a man-to-man attitude. St. John’s defenders love to jump out and trap, especially on in-bounds situations.
Uncharacteristically, Gonzaga already had already committed 13 turnovers with 12 1/2 minutes still to be played. St. John’s was only able to convert those into a total of 13 points, however.
St. John’s may have still been adjusting to the loss of 6-5 senior swingman D.J. Kennedy. The 12th-leading scorer in school history, Kennedy suffered a season-ending ACL tear in his right knee against Syracuse on March 10 during the Big East Tournament.
But the way Gonzaga played, that may not have made much of a difference.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
