As Brigham Young bombardiers have shown all season, the complexity of basketball can be reduced to simple math. When the Cougars are raining and draining 3-pointers, it takes a remarkable shooting effort at the other end to keep pace.
No. 3-seeded Brigham Young (32-4) rode a 34-point blitz by All-American senior guard Jimmer Fredette to a convincing 89-67 victory Saturday night over Gonzaga at the Pepsi Center, advancing to a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 2 seed Florida on Thursday in New Orleans.
Coming off a Thursday demolition of St. John’s, Gonzaga was the trendy pick to get past BYU, but the Zags never found an answer to slowing BYU or Fredette.
“We were aware that a lot of people picked Gonzaga,” Fredette said. “But we were just focused on our team. And (shots) were just falling for me tonight.”
Fredette nailed 7-of-12 from beyond the 3-point arc, and the Cougars were 14-for-28 from 3-point land. For good measure, Fredette also led his team with six assists.
“They were the far better team,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “When they shoot the ball like that, they’re a handful.”
The 11th-seeded Bulldogs trailed just 45-38 at the half, but Fredette and friends kept the pressure on with marvelous shooting and expert ballhandling to overcome their size disadvantage.
Amazingly, this was the first meeting between the programs, although they will be league rivals beginning next season with BYU leaving the Mountain West for the West Coast Conference.
BYU has won two games in an NCAA Tournament only one other time, in 1981.
“It’s been a long time for our fans,” BYU coach Dave Rose said, his voice cracking with emotion. “I’m happy for them; I’m happy for our players, our coaches, administration. We’re all in this together.”
Fredette entered the game with a nation-leading 28.6 points per game, though it took awhile for him to warm up. But when he started to feel it, his shots came from everywhere, including off-balance, fall-away 3-pointers from well beyond the arc.
“He has no range (limit),” Zags senior Steven Gray said of Fredette. “He can hit it from anywhere.”
For BYU, it wasn’t all Fredette, although so often it seems that way. During one crowd-pleasing sequence early in the second half, Fredette missed a 3-pointer, but backcourt mate Jackson Emery stole a pass in the open court and fed Kyle Collinsworth for a backdoor layup.
Gonzaga found seams against BYU’s 2-3 zone but missed many wide-open shots that could have neutralized the Cougars’ relentless attack.
BYU’s zone will never be compared with the length or tenacity of, say, Syracuse’s. But the Cougars did a terrific job of getting back and preventing Gonzaga from running. And almost every time the Zags tried to pound the ball inside, at least two BYU defenders jumped in to smother the play.
“Those (Gonzaga) guys are so big, you have to swarm them and make them uncomfortable,” BYU’s Emery said.
Gonzaga gave its fans a reason to cheer with an 11-2 run that reduced BYU’s lead to 63-55. But BYU regrouped after a timeout and began swishing 3-pointers again. Fredette answered with a bomb, and that was followed by an unlikely trey from 6-foot-8 post player Noah Hartsock.
75-55 BYU.
Ballgame.
FG FT Reb
GON. (25-10) Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Sacre 28 5-9 7-9 2-7 1 3 17
Carter 31 0-6 0-0 1-5 4 2 0
Goodson 19 0-0 1-2 1-1 2 2 1
Harris 28 8-12 2-2 2-8 0 2 18
Gray 38 6-16 4-4 0-3 7 4 18
Arop 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Stockton 18 0-3 0-0 0-2 4 2 0
Olynyk 10 2-3 1-2 0-2 0 0 5
Monninghoff 8 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 2 0
Keita 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Hart 3 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 0 0
Dower 14 3-6 2-2 3-4 0 2 8
Totals 200 24-57 17-21 12-36 18 19 67
Percentages: FG .421, FT .810. 3-point goals: 2-9, .222 (Gray 2-5, Carter 0-1, Harris 0-1, Stockton 0-2). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 5 (Sacre 4, Harris). Turnovers: 15 (Sacre 5, Gray 3, Goodson 2, Harris 2, Dower, Carter). Steals: 4 (Gray, Harris, Goodson, Sacre). Technical fouls: None.
FG FT Reb
BYU (32-4) Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Abouo 26 3-7 2-2 0-4 1 3 8
Emery 37 6-11 1-2 0-3 4 3 16
Collinsworth 34 2-5 2-3 1-7 2 1 6
Fredette 39 11-23 5-5 0-2 6 0 34
Hartsock 20 5-5 0-0 1-3 2 3 13
Magnusson 13 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 4 0
Zylstra 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Martineau 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Anderson 18 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 4 2
Rogers 11 3-4 3-3 0-3 0 1 10
Totals 200 31-59 13-15 4-27 17 19 89
Percentages: FG .525, FT .867. 3-point goals: 14-28, .500 (Fredette 7-12, Hartsock 3-3, Emery 3-8, Rogers 1-2, Collinsworth 0-1, Abouo 0-2). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 6 (Anderson 2, Collinsworth, Rogers, Abouo, Hartsock). Turnovers: 8 (Fredette 3, Collinsworth 2, Abouo 2, Magnusson). Steals: 10 (Emery 3, Collinsworth 3, Abouo 2, Hartsock, Fredette). Technical fouls: None.
Gonzaga 38 29 — 67
BYU 45 44 — 89
A — 19,328. Officials —Les Jones, Tom Eades, Tony Greene.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
