Texas triples late sink Gonzaga | 3 takeaways
Mar. 21—PORTLAND — Three takeaways at the buzzer from Gonzaga's 74-68 loss to 11th-seeded Texas on Saturday at the Moda Center in Portland. Texas drains timely 3s Texas only made five 3-pointers, but they came at opportune times.
Jordan Pope, an Oregon State transfer, hit late triples with 5:30 and 2:36 remaining, the latter extending the Longhorns lead to 69-64. Cadmen Heide's lone points of the game provided the dagger. He took a pass in the corner and connected on a 3-pointer with 14.
7 ticks left to boost Texas' lead to 72-68. Gonzaga had another cold shooting night behind the arc, making 4 of 16 (25%). The Longhorns were 5 of 15 with Pope accounting for three 3s.
Big man battle Graham Ike generally got the better of the battle of the bigs against Texas 7-foot counterpart Matas Vokietaitis in the first half. Ike scored 11 points and handed out three assists when the Longhorns brought an extra defender. Vokietaitis didn't have much impact until scoring five of his seven first-half points in the closing minutes.
He had seven points, four rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes. However, the Longhorns got quality minutes from reserve forward Nic Codie, who scored twice in the paint when Vokietaitis was on the bench. Codie, who averages just 3.