NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gonzaga coach Mark Few wondered how his eighth-ranked Bulldogs would handle a nine-day break for exams, a trip across the country, and playing in a hostile environment.
The Bulldogs handled it just fine, thank you.
Nigel Williams-Goss scored 20 points, and Gonzaga remained unbeaten by holding off Tennessee 86-76 Sunday.
“I thought they did good, especially the way we started the first half,” Few said of his players. “Usually when you come out of finals like this, you’re a little bit concerned about losing rhythm. We had some pretty good rhythm going into finals. (We) gave them several days off. I was a little bit worried about that. They responded.”
Gonzaga (11-0) hadn’t played since beating Akron on Dec. 10 and looked strong as it scored the first eight points of the game and never trailed. The Bulldogs led 27-6 on a jumper by Zach Collins with 12:06 remaining in the first half, 43-29 at halftime and 64-48 midway through the second half.
Tennessee (6-5) went on a 10-3 run and got within 75-71 on a jumper by Robert Hubbs III with 2:26 remaining.
Josh Perkins then hit a jumper as Gonzaga held on for its fourth straight win in the five games between these two teams.
“Obviously we weren’t perfect, but to come in here and beat a good Tennessee team by double digits, and pretty much control the entire game, I thought we did a good job,” Williams-Goss said. “But there’s room to grow.”
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes saw enough Sunday to think Few and Gonzaga still might be undefeated when March rolls around.
“I think he’s got as good a team as he’s ever had,” Barnes said of Few. “I think he’s going to become an even bigger story in college basketball because if you look ahead, he’s always done tremendous things with his team in the league and (it) could be the first time in a long time that you’ve got a team capable of being undefeated heading into postseason play.”
Detrick Mostella led Tennessee with 17 points and Hubbs had 10.
The Vols played without 6-foot-7 freshman John Fulkerson, who missed his first game since dislocating his right elbow in Thursday night’s win over Lipscomb. Fulkerson is expected to miss six weeks.
This was billed as the Battle of Broadway played at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, so technically it was a neutral court — except for all the fans wearing Tennessee orange in the seats. Those fans got very loud as the Vols made their second-half run.
Although Barnes liked the way the Vols fought back, he wasn’t happy with how they started, and he’s tiring of coming close in losses.
“It’s one thing being talked about as being a scrappy team that fights all the time, but at some point in time we’ve got to want to be more than that,” he said. “We’ve got to want to play 40 minutes, and we haven’t done that at any point in time this year.”
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