For the second time since 2008, the No. 11 seed Texas Longhorns are heading to the Sweet 16 with a First Four Cinderella story behind a 74-68 upset of the No. 3 Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Moda Center in Portland on Thursday keyed by a huge three-pointer from junior guard Cam Heide with 14 seconds remaining.
It was the only basket of the game for the Purdue transfer who played just three
minutes in the second half in favor of sophomore forward Nic Codie, who provided a big boost off the bench for the Longhorns in scoring 12 of the 20 Texas points off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting with four rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steal. It was the season high in points for Codie, who fell out of the rotation for much of the season.
Senior guard Jordan Pope and sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis both scored a team-high 17 points for Texas as Pope hit early shots and a big three with 2:36 remaining to give Texas a five-point lead. Vokietaitis was efficient offensively with 7-of-11 shooting and nine rebounds while avoiding game-changing foul trouble in defending Gonzaga’s star forward Graham Ike.
The WCC Player of the Year scored a game-high 25 points, but it took 22 shots as the Horns managed to defend the 6’9, 250-pounder effectively enough to limit him to four free-throw attempts and force three turnovers.
In a close game, Texas was able to find margins in an 11-2 advantage in points off turnovers and a 46-38 edge in paints in the paint.
One-on-one jumpers made by Pope bailed Texas out of two early possessions without much ball or player movement, but the Horns weren’t able to get anything else going offensively at the first media timeout, trailing 6-4 because the Bulldogs took advantage of ball watching to score three times on off-ball cuts even though Texas was able to bait Gonzaga into three missed threes.
Off the bench, Codie scored in the paint for Texas, a rare transition opportunity for the Horns resulted in a lob from junior wing Dailyn Swain to graduate guard Tramon Mark for a dunk, Mark found Codie for a layup, and a steal by Swain resulted in a fast-break dunk.
On the other end, Texas was giving up too many easy shots at the basket and some contested jumpers to Gonzaga during a long stretch of play that saw the under-12 timeout happen at the 9:37 mark with the Bulldogs up 18-15 as a big three at the end of the shot clock by Swain helped the Longhorns maintain some contact.
Given the effective defense Texas played over the first two games of the tournament, the burgeoning concern was that the Zags were 9-of-9 shooting on two-point attempts halfway through the first half — the five misses for Mark Few’s team all came from beyond the arc.
With Vokietaitis working from the foul line, not a typical catch point for the big center, he was able to drive for a resounding slam before Ike took advantage of the space afforded by Vokietaitis to hit the first three for Gonzaga. After both teams traded layups, including good fundamentals by Texas senior guard Chendall Weaver to play off two feet on a drive to bank in a shot, the Horns went into the under-eight timeout trailing 23-19 with Vokietaitis heading to the line for the first free throws of the game.
Splitting the trip represented improvement after the 3-of-11 performance against BYU, but Texas quickly entered a danger zone when Ike hit another jumper in the paint and Gonzaga got an offensive rebound after a missed free throw. Fortunately for the Horns, the Bulldogs weren’t able to convert that opportunity, but the lead did reach a game-high eight points when Miller had to use a timeout at the 4:20 mark following a pull-up jumper by Gonzaga, setting up an important close to the half for Texas in the midst of six straight misses.
Trying to create some offense, the Horns inserted Codie with Vokietaitis and ran a high-low set to produce a layup through contact for the big Lithuanian, who couldn’t convert the three-point play. The intent for Texas out of the timeout become more clear as another big-to-big pass from Vokietaitis to Codie produced a bank shot in the paint and Swain took advantage of Ike fronting Vokietaitis by passing over the top for a layup.
Good awareness from Vokietaitis against a double team allowed him to find Weaver in the paint for a made floater, Pope got free enough to hit a jumper, and a transition opportunity for Weaver resulted in a layup that cut the deficit to 33-32 when Few called his use-it-or-lose-it timeout with 40 seconds remaining.
After a defensive stop, a good screen by Vokietaitis for Pope resulted in a go-ahead three to take a 35-33 edge into halftime with seven straight made baskets leading to a 7-0 run.
Continuing the feed the post, Vokietaitis scored on the block against Ike and drew an offensive foul against Gonzaga’s star forward before Pope got into the paint to float in a shot. Two fouls drawn by Gonzaga led to three free throws prior to a second-chance finish to regain the lead.
Then Weaver’s activity starting changing the game, getting deflections on the defensive end and finishing with toughness on a contested bank shot off the paint before Swain attacked the rim on the secondary break for a tough layup to take a three-point lead into the under-16 timeout.
Gonzaga responded by getting high-quality shots — a paint jumper by Ike and a three by Mario Saint-Supery. Vokietaitis stopped the run with a layup before Texas hit two more shots in the paint, one from Codie and one from Mark.
Neither team found much separation between media timeouts, although Swain used his physicality to bully his way to a finish at the rim in the halfcourt and took advantage of a questionable shot in transition by freshman Davis Fogle to cherry pick a fast-break slam in the other direction.
Texas was able to create a margin with two free throws from Codie, a second-chance three from Pope on good movement after missing in the lane, and a productive trip from Vokietaitis.
A layup by Vokietaitis gave the Longhorns a six-point lead, but the Bulldogs were heating up offensively to make it 66-64 at the under-four timeout, a surge arrested by Pope with a huge three at the 2:36 mark.
The momentum swung back in favor of Gonzaga with an extremely questionable foul call on Texas junior guard Simeon Wilcher that resulted in two converted free throws. When Pope and Mark couldn’t hit tough threes at the end of the shot clock, Ike was able to drive for a big dunk to cut the margin to a point and force a timeout from Miller, his final, with 32 seconds remaining, that resulted in Heide’s three to seal the outcome.
Texas advances to face the winner of No. 2 seed Purdue and No. 7 seed Miami next Thursday in San Jose.
