In a wild, back and forth affair between No. 3 seed Gonzaga and No. 2 seed UCLA on Thursday night, it came down to clutch shooting and playmaking down the stretch as the Bulldogs edged the Bruins to advance to the Elite Eight of the men’s NCAA tournament.
UCLA led by 13 at halftime, but went over 11 minutes without making a field goal in the second half. That led to a wild swing on the scoreboard, as Gonzaga led by eight with over a minute to go.
But UCLA was not done yet. The Bruins stormed back in the final 20 seconds of game action and took a one-point lead off of a made three-point basket by Amari Bailey with 12.2 seconds to play.
The 76–75 lead was short-lived, as Gonzaga guard Julian Strawther hit a deep three to hand the Bulldogs the lead for good, burying a basket from the logo with 7.2 seconds left that had shades of Kris Jenkins in the 2017 national championship game.
“It’s the Jay Wright play. That’s what we call it in practice,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said after the game.
Gonzaga will move on to play No. 4 seed UConn in the Elite Eight on Saturday for a chance to get back to the Final Four.
Here’s the wild ending of the game that had the college basketball world buzzing on Thursday night.
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