The No. 7 Gonzaga Bulldogs were defeated by the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats in overtime, 90-89, at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Saturday.
The Zags (7-2) went ahead by as many as 18 points and never trailed in regulation after taking a 9-8 advantage at the 16:54 mark in the first half, though the Wildcats (8-1) didn’t rattle easily.
A 16-2 scoring run from Kentucky in the second half flipped the swing of momentum, as Gonzaga failed to knock down open looks around the rim and from deep, while its opposition suddenly couldn’t be stopped down low.
Here’s what Bulldogs head coach Mark Few had to say after the loss.
On what changed between the first and second halves for Gonzaga
“I mean just all of a sudden, lid was on the hoop. We had a lot of really, really good looks. We’ve made the first half ones we’ve made all year, even the free throws, missed a bunch of front ends. And then we gave them life, and they did a great job. And I think our offense affected our defense a little bit.
“We lost a little bit of our intensity and started kind of deviating from the plan. But it was a great basketball game. Listen, man, both teams did great effort for guys making the right plays on both sides of the ball. It was just a hell of a basketball game.”
On what he saw from Kentucky’s defense
“I mean again we were just getting really good looks. They probably weren’t maybe in the same rhythm or context of what we had in the first half, but we had post ups, we had wide open 3s. They were 0-for-9 from 3 in the second half, pretty much all of them teed up wide open so, might’ve affected us a little bit. The guys knew what they were doing.”
On the impact rebounding had on the final outcome (Kentucky outrebounded Gonzaga, 21-13, in second half)
“We did a nice job in the first half, and then again, because we were caught in rotations and not kind of taking care of our business on the defensive end, and you got guys in tough places, and we kind of started making up a couple of rules where we just randomly go, double the guy, and it would just open up the glass. Biggest thing is we dried up offensively there in the first nine minutes, I think it happened, which is very unlikely.”
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Mark Pope Reveals the Key to His Team’s Stunning Offensive Success Against Gonzaga
Kentucky basketball had a bounce-back signature win over the Gonzaga Bulldogs late on Saturday night in an overtime thriller, 90-89. The Wildcats were getting torched in the first half, getting outworked in nearly every facet of the game. Adjustments then became the big story of the night for the Wildcats in their big comeback.
Their defense was a big issue, but so was there offense. Kentucky struggled shooting on the night, and Gonzaga wasn’t allowing much in the first half. Then came the big second half adjustments, where Kentucky came back from as much as 18 points, fighting back to get back into the game.
On defense, they switched it up throwing different zone looks at the Zags to throw them off rhythm. When you get stops, you also need some buckets, and that’s exactly what Kentucky did. The Wildcats then got into a groove, but it wasn’t from three-point range, it was from inside the paint.
A big part of that was cutting and screening, and that was a big focal point in their success of their adjustments after halftime. Mark Pope says Kentucky is emphasizing “cutting teams up” on the offensive side of the ball. He says that helps when you’re facing really good defenses.
“We had a couple of really productive days of practice where we’re starting to understand how to be us against the best defenses in the country. I was incredibly proud of our guys in the second half. We’re gonna have a really nice film session of cutting teams up, because we did. We cut.
“We’ve been talking the last two days about cutting, cutting cutting. We had some guys make some unbelievable plays. Some late passes to each other that are really important, and that all comes from guys being willing to cut hard.
“I was massively encouraged (Saturday) by us learning how we can punish. Just seeing the fruit of some of these guys’ work the last couple of days about learning how you can punish teams that really push out on you. It was actually terrific.”
Seeing the resolve and adversity that this experienced Kentucky team went through against the Zags is a very encouraging sign for Kentucky fans.
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Full Streaming Guide to Watch Kentucky Basketball vs. Colgate With and Without Cable
It drastically changes for the Kentucky Wildcats this week as they go from playing against one of the top teams in the nation in terms of NET and KenPom to facing off against one of the lowest. Kentucky just beat a top 5 ranked team in terms of those two rankings in Gonzaga but now go back home to take on the 282nd KenPom ranked Colgate.
It’s a time for the Wildcats to get healthy as they basically ran out of point guards against Gonzaga, and it allows them to grow in the areas where they were exposed against Clemson and Gonzaga.
There is still a lot of growth left in this team, and this buy game against Colgate will help a ton. However, they also can’t look past them, as we learn every year in college basketball. Any team has a chance to put a good game together and knock off a team that’s looking past them.
HOW TO WATCH THE GAME
Opponent: Colgate Raiders
Time: 8 pm EST, Wednesday, December 11th
Venue: Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY
TV: ESPN 2
The good news for this game is that it’s not a streaming-only game like many of their buy games have been. This one is on ESPN 2 and can be found in your normal cable packaging. However, if you want to stream it, you can still do so on “Watch ESPN.” You can use this link here to stream the game.
Mark Pope hopes to have starting point guard Lamont Butler back by this game, but he will have to go without Kerr Kriisa for a while. It was announced today that Kriisa is out for a while with a foot fracture.
Without Kriisa, we may see a lot more Travis Perry in this game against Colgate. He only played for one minute against Gonzaga. After both Butler and Kriisa couldn’t go, most of the point guard duties went to Jaxson Robinson.
