INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Corey Kispert scored 15 of his 23 capabilities by halftime and No. 1 general seed Gonzaga rolled in its NCAA Tournament opener, beating Norfolk Utter 98-55 on Saturday night.
Anton Watson had 17 capabilities on 7-for-7 shooting for the Bulldogs (27-0), who shook off a tiring few opening minutes and with out problems handled the 16th-seeded Mid-Eastern Athletic Convention champions.
Subsequent up for the undefeated Zags is Oklahoma within the 2d round of the West Procedure.
Gonzaga led by 22 capabilities earlier than the damage and kept stretching the lead after halftime, avoiding even a splash of vulnerability to an wonderful upset that has befallen handiest one No. 1 seed in occasion historical past. It has obtained 31 straight relationship to final season.
“We true have to rep this occasion,” Gonzaga coach Designate Few said of the pursuit of finishing unbeaten. “That is all we have to produce is correct rep this occasion. Obviously if we rep the occasion we end up undefeated, however I’ve never heard any of the guys focus on about it. The staff doesn’t focus on about it. I produce no longer focus on about it. Gosh, man, we true have to rep this thing.”
The Bulldogs made 16 of 25 shots (64%) after an 0-for-4 delivery. Kispert knocked down five 3s within the gap half, whereas Watson supplied some instantaneous inner production off the bench.
By the end, Kispert had made 8 of 12 shots and 6 of 9 3-guidelines to manual an attack that shot 55.7%, including 14 of 27 from on the abet of the arc.
Devante Carter and Kyonze Chavis every scored 12 capabilities for the Spartans (17-8), who had obtained seven straight. The high-tail included a blown 19-level lead for the length of a 54-53 victory over Appalachian Utter in Thursday’s First Four.
The program has a critical occasion upset in its historical past: a rep as a 15 seed against No. 2 seed Missouri in 2012. Nonetheless the Spartans would possibly maybe maybe no longer add an mighty extra wonderful upset, falling on the abet of by double digits halfway through the predominant half because the Zags — averaging a nationwide-most attention-grabbing 92.1 capabilities — started getting their offense to hum.
Norfolk Utter shot true 30.6%.
“I wager that we let the 2d derive some distance from us a tiny bit,” Spartans coach Robert Jones said. “We place the stress on ourselves as an change of the stress being on them. Attributable to in actual fact it changed into no stress on us, however we performed that approach.”
BIG PICTURE
Jones knew the daunting arena going through Norfolk Utter for this one, pronouncing his Spartans had been taking half in with “home cash” in taking on “the Lakers of faculty basketball.” They even danced round on the free-throw line advance the Gonzaga bench earlier than tip-off, then scored the game’s first four capabilities earlier than it grew to turn out to be handle so many 1-vs-16 matchups earlier than.
“We haven’t performed the approach we’d been taking half in to derive 17 wins this twelve months,” Jones said. “I told them at halftime I wasn’t rather sure what personnel this changed into on the market.”
There’s historical past on the road for Gonzaga in this occasion speed because the end general seed for the predominant time in program historical past. Earlier this week, the Zags became the 14th personnel to full a delivery-to-operate protect atop the AP Prime 25 poll. And they’re looking out out for to turn out to be the predominant personnel to maintain out as unbeaten nationwide champion since Indiana in 1976. Saturday night changed into one more step in direction of that goal for a personnel that has obtained every sport however one this twelve months by double-digit margins.
WATSON’S ROLL
Watson, a 6-foot-8 sophomore, entered the game averaging 7.2 capabilities and 3.4 rebounds whereas shooting almost 63%. He made an instantaneous affect by getting free within the paint against some zone looks from the Spartans.
“Honestly within the zone, that’s handle my celebrated location to play is correct within the guts since you in general bear regulate of the overall sport at that level,” Watson said.
“They performed zone a lot. I knew they had been about to produce that. So I loved that. I changed into making an strive to search out my shot and being aggressive the overall time.”
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will face the eighth-seeded Sooners on Monday after Oklahoma’s first-round rep against ninth-seeded Missouri on Saturday.
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