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SALT LAKE CITY — Derick Beltran knocked down a jumper, and the entire arena stood still.
Beltran’s jumper with 3:47 remaining in the second half evened the score at 56 all. In the history of the NCAA tournament, no No. 1 seed had ever lost to a No. 16 seed – but here Beltran and his teammates were, tied up with the top ranked team in the country, with the impossible in reach.
But, the Gonzaga Bulldogs did not become the top team in the country with no effort. The team that lost in the final moments against Butler regrouped, and as they have done all season long, followed the example of their head coach and executed their game plan.
Twenty five seconds after Beltran's jumper, Gary Bell Jr. got open on the perimeter, teammate Kevin Pangos passed him the ball, Bell elevated, released a shot, watch the ball spin through the air, through the hoop, and the Bulldogs were back up by three points.
No timeout was called; Coach Few let his team respond, and the Bulldogs closed out the game in front of a crowd who was vigorously cheering on the Southern University Jaguars with an 8-2 run.
The game was closer than many of the fans in attendance could have ever predicted. The score was tied three times, and the lead changed four times. Every time the Bulldogs would try to bully their way to a lead, the Jaguars would respond with a 3-point play or a steal to keep the game close.
Southern was lead by Beltran, their 6-foot 4-inch senior guard, who played 39 minutes and finished with a team-high 21 points on 6 of 14 shooting.
The six-point loss is the closest by a 16-seed against a 1-seed since 1996, when Western Carolina lost by two points to Purdue. The Boilermakers would lose in the next round to Tubby Smith’s Georgia team.
Does this indicate that Gonzaga is in needs to be trembling in their sneakers? Not necessarily. Elias Harris is likely not going to shoot 20 percent again in the tournament, and the Bulldogs committed 10 turnovers.
The fairytale will have to have to be told elsewhere.
Dan Lewis covers BYU sports for KSL.com. He is currently attending Brigham Young University, studying communications with an emphasis in multimedia journalism.
