SEATTLE – The Gonzaga Bulldogs hopes for a national championship came to a shocking halt in the second round Saturday at KeyArena.
Winners of their last 22 games and picked by many to win the whole enchilada, the second-seeded Bulldogs ran into an unknown but talented Nevada team that blew them out of the NCAA Tournament to the tune of 91-72.
The 10th-seeded Wolf Pack (25-8), won in every imaginable category with unimaginable ease. Nevada outhustled, outrebounded, outsmarted and finally outperformed their more highly regarded opponent by such as wide margin that it certainly will gain the Wolf Pack instant fans and instant notoriety.
“It feels as if someone took your life away, almost,” Gonzaga freshman forward Adam Morrison said. “This is all I’ve got, is basketball. We can’t play anymore. The year is taken away.”
“I don’t know if I can put it into words right now,” said senior forward Kyle Bankhead, openly weeping at game’s end. “I don’t even know if it’s hit home yet. At the moment right now, I’m just thinking that I’m not going to be out there ever again. I wish I knew the words to capture how I’m feeling right now.”
Led by a heady, whirlwind of a point guard, a possible first-round NBA draft choice and an absurdly athletic power forward, Nevada took it to the Bulldogs from the opening tip and never let up.
Nevada went on a 21-7 run midway through the first half and held a commanding 34-16 lead 11 1/2 minutes into the game. In a display of near-perfect basketball, the Wolf Pack didn’t commit a turnover for the first 10 minutes, had just three by the half and finished with nine.
Did someone predict Nevada would be awed playing Gonzaga (28-3) on a national stage? Forget it.
“It’s a basketball game,” said Nevada coach Trent Johnson, who prepped at Seattle’s Franklin High School and was an assistant under Lynn Nance at the University of Washington. “What we talk about as staff and players all the time is respecting the game of basketball. We’re just competing against who we’re playing. Yes, it’s hard at this time of the year because so much is magnified by the attention of the games, but it’s still a game.”
Nevada point guard Todd Okeson badly outplayed Gonzaga counterpart Blake Stepp, baffled the Bulldogs’ defense by driving and dishing for 19 points and seven assists and bombed outside for three 3-pointers.
Wolf pack guard Kirk Snyder, who figures to earn a sizable signing bonus from an NBA team, slipped through and flew over Gonzaga defenders for 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. All of his four 3-pointers were well beyond 24 feet.
Nevada forward Kevinn Pinkney apparently has mechanized legs, which he displayed in a particularly spectacular out-of-bounds play. Taking an alley-oop pass from Okeson, Pinkney launched himself, grabbed the ball well above the rim, hung in the air long enough to dump jet fuel and slammed it home. He turned it into a three-point play with a free throw to give the Wolf Pack a 68-54 lead with 8:12 remaining.
“Coming into the tournament, we weren’t respected nationwide,” Pinkney said. “We were the underdog going into the last game against Michigan State and we came together as a team and got that victory. So who’s to say that we couldn’t come in today and get this victory, too?”
As good as the Wolf Pack was, several of the Bulldogs’ stars were that bad.
Gonzaga post Ronny Turiaf played just four minutes of the first half because of foul trouble. All of his 13 points and five rebounds came in the second half, but by then it was too late. He played just 15 minutes.
“It’s a huge factor in us losing,” Bankhead said. “Whenever you don’t have one of your star players, your go-to guy, it’s going to hurt and it’s going to affect the outcome of the game.”
Stepp misfired badly all day, hitting just three of 18 shots from the floor, one of 12 from 3-point range. Dogged by WAC All-Defensive team member Garry Hill-Thomas, Stepp was rendered ineffective as a floor leader.
“I felt good; my shots just didn’t go down,” Stepp said. “I felt good during practice and before the game, but obviously, that didn’t happen on the court.”
Down 20 late in the first half, Gonzaga staged a rally early in the second. Behind Morrison and Sean Mallon, the Bulldogs chipped away and trailed 58-50 with 11:41 remaining.
Nevada came back with 3-pointers by Okeson and Snyder and your average jaw-dropping jams by Pinkney to again build an insurmountable, 15-point lead three minutes later.
“It was Nevada’s day today,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “It wasn’t Gonzaga’s.”
Forward Nick Fazekas finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolf Pack. Forward Cory Violette led the Bulldogs with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
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