Say hello to your new No. 1: the Gonzaga Bulldogs will be the top-ranked team in the country when polls come out on Monday, as they eviscerated Portland 81-52 in their regular season finale.
No. 2 Gonzaga vs. Portland final score: Bulldogs destroy Pilots 81-52, likely to be No. 1
Gonzaga didn’t struggle at all with Portland, leading by as much as 34 in a win that basically guarantees they’ll be ranked No. 1 next week.
William Mancebo
Much was made of the fact that Gonzaga was able to rise to No. 2, the highest ranking in school history. With No. 1 Indiana losing earlier in the week to Minnesota, all eyes turned to Gonzaga. They knocked off BYU on Thursday, and all they needed to do was knock off the lowly Pilots.
That wasn’t an issue: Elias Harris led the way for Gonzaga with 20 points and nine rebounds, while likely All-American Kelly Olynyk had 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting as well as 11 boards.
The game was close, briefly, as Portland got out to an early 9-7 lead. That just made the Zags angry, as they scored 13 straight including threes from Kevin Pangos, Mike Hart, and Gary Bell. From there, it was off to the races: Gonzaga was up 33-16 at the under-8 timeout and led by as much as 25 before a pair of threes by Portland cut it to just 19 at the half.
It would stay out of hand the entire time: Gonzaga led by as much as 34 before winning 81-52.
Considering the Zags had long-sealed up a West Coast Conference regular season championship -- and the top seed in the conference tourney as wella as the bye to the semifinal that comes along with it -- the Zags had a lot to play for. The win secures an undefeated conference slate and of course, gets them the top spot in next week’s polls. Now, they can rest until next Saturday, when they’ll play whoever makes it out of their side of the brackets.
As for the Pilots, the loss seals the No. 8-seed in that tournament, meaning they’ll have to play an additional game against No. 9 Loyola Marymount just to make it to the second round of play.
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