DENVER — The third-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs got off to a slow start, but picked things up as the game went on, and wore out the Grand Canyon Lopes 82-70 on Friday.
Julian Strawther lead Gonzaga with 28 points and 10 rebounds and Drew Timme finished with 21 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
Noah Baumann made a pair of 3s during a 12-4 stretch that helped the Lopes to build a seven-point lead during the first half.
Strawther kept the Bulldogs in the game early on, scoring 16 of his 28 in the first half.
Timme and the rest of the Zags — outside of Strawther — were bottled up for most of the first half, but came out the second half a whole different team.
Grand Canyon's Ray Harrison scored on a driving layup with 16:09 to cut the Bulldogs lead to six. But Gonzaga answered with a 16-0 run that lasted nearly seven minutes to take a 64-42 lead. The run was capped off by a pair of free throws from Timme.
During the scoring spree, the Lopes (24-12) missed 11 straight shots.
Harrison led Grand Canyon with 20 points and Chance McMillian had 16.
Anton Watson scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and added two steals to go along with his tough defensive play for the Zags.
Next up for the Bulldogs (29-5) is a game Sunday against TCU, who scraped by on a last-second shot from JaKobe Coles to beat Arizona State 72-70 in the evening's late contest.
Pittsburgh 59, Iowa State 41
Nelly Cummings scored 13 points to help the No. 11 seed Pittsburgh Panthers to a 59-41 upset win over the sixth-seeded Iowa State Cyclones in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
The Panthers stormed out to a 22-2 lead to start the game as the Cyclones missed their first 11 shots and were held to 23% from the field for the game.
The Cyclones didn't make a field goal until Jaren Holmes' short jumper with 9:53 left in the first half.
Things didn’t get much better for Iowa State, who had three stretches where they missed at least eight consecutive shots.
Jamarius Burton added 11 points and Greg Elliott had 10 for the Panthers.
The Cyclones clawed back to within 30-23 at halftime but again struggled to start the second half by making two of their first 19 shots.
The exclamation point on the win was dealt by Pitt’s Nike Sibande, who was fouled on a 3-pointer from the left corner with under five minutes left. He made the ensuing free throw to put the Panthers up by 20.
Gabe Kalscheur and Holmes each had 12 points for Iowa State (19-14).
Pitt (24-11) now moves on to Sunday’s second-round Midwest Region game against third-seeded Xavier, who had to rally from 13 points down to beat No. 14 seed Kennesaw State in their opening round game.
Xavier 72, Kennesaw State 67
Xavier's Jack Nunge blocked Terrell Burden's driving attempt at a go-ahead layup in the finals seconds to give the Musketeers a thrilling 72-67 win over the Kennesaw State and foil the Owls attempt at winning their first NCAA Tournament game on Friday.
Burden and Chris Youngblood each scored 14 points to lead the Kennesaw State offense, which appeared to be on the verge of a signature March moment.
At one point, the 5-10 Burden got Nunge on a switch off a screen, pulled him outside and blew past him for a layup and to give the Owls a 61-48 lead.
But Nunge was much of the reason the Owls shot 2-for-15 during the final 9 1/2 minutes of the game, reversing the momentum in a game that saw third-seeded Xavier (26-9) trail by as many as 13-points.
Xavier clung to a 68-67 when Burden — who a success all day with dribble penetration — made his move into the paint. But that's when Nunge rotated over and swatted the ball into the backboard.
Souley Boum was able to get the ball in his hands, and hit two free throws with 2.6 seconds left for a 70-67 lead.
Boum hit four clinching free throws in the final 2.6 seconds for the Musketeers, who ran off 15 unanswered points as part of a game-ending 24-6 run.
That was just enough to turn away the 14th-seeded Owls (26-9) from winning the program's first-ever tournament game.
The Owls did had a final chance to set up a 3-pointer for the tie, but their chance was immediately halted when Spencer Rodgers' right foot landed on stepped on the sideline with his right foot as he caught the inbound pass.
Jerome Hunter tallied a career-best 24 points to lead the Musketeers and Boum finished with 17. Nunge had 10 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
Xavier moves on to face 11th-seeded Pittsburgh on Sunday in the Midwest Region semifinals.
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