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SALT LAKE CITY — Coming off its first NCAA Tournament win in school history, Fairleigh Dickinson’s tournament run came to a screeching halt against Gonzaga.
The Gonzaga defense shut down the Knights to claim an 87-49 win in the first round in Salt Lake City.
In Fairleigh Dickinson's win over Prairie View A&M in the First Four round Tuesday, the Knights trailed by seven at halftime before shooting 68 percent on their way to a 48-point second half and a win.
That was not the case Thursday, though, as the Gonzaga defense shut down the Knights in the first half. The Zags didn’t allow a Knights field goal until nearly seven minutes into the game while limiting them to just 19 percent shooting in the half.
Fairleigh Dickinson’s Darnell Edge, who led the team with 33 points in the First Four win, was limited to just 3 first-half points on 1-of-7 shooting.
“It started on the defensive end in the first half,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. “They came in on quite a roll; their guards were really shooting it well. … That led to us getting out and running.”
As the Gonzaga defense shut down the Knights offense, the Bulldogs offensive was humming. Gonzaga shot 58 percent from the field in the first half, including 58 percent from behind the arc.
The Zags, who lead the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.76, dished out 12 assists while only coughing up three turnovers in the first half and took a 36-point lead into the break.
The Knights finally began hitting shots in the second half but it was too little, too late. The Knights couldn’t string together a series of stops on the defensive end to ever even cut the Gonzaga lead to less than 30. The Zags led by as much as 42 points in the second half and coasted their way to a 38-point win.
Fairleigh Dickinson finished the game shooting 30 percent from the field while Gonzaga shot 53 percent. Gonzaga forward Brandon Clarke said his team’s game plan prepared them to stop the traditionally hot-shooting Knights.
"We really did a good job at doing two things at once: getting in the gap and getting up on the shooters still,” Clarke said. “I feel like we had a really good focus on the defensive end tonight.”
Clarke finished with 12 points and eight rebounds in the win. Rui Hachimura also scored in double digits for the Zags, finishing with a game-high 21 points. Killian Tillie, who has struggled with injury through much of this season, had one of his best games of the season for the Bulldogs and scored a season-high 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Few had nothing but praise for Tillie after the game, especially with the way he has been able to bounce back from injury.
“He did a great job of staying positive,” Few said. “It’s just awesome to see.”
Elyjah Williams and Mike Holloway Jr. each scored 10 points for the Knights while Edge finished with 7 points in the loss.
Gonzaga will play the winner of Thursday night's Syracuse-Baylor game on Saturday.
