By Josh Tolentino
Eagle News Sports
GLENDALE, ARI. (Eagle News) — Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 points as Gonzaga defeated South Carolina 77-73, in a battle of first-time teams at the Final Four.
The Bulldogs advance to their first-ever NCAA Championship Game and will face the winner of North Carolina-Oregon.
Gonzaga’s pair of 7-footers in senior Przemek Karnowski and freshman Zach Collins gave South Carolina’s wings trouble on both ends. The pair combined for 27 points and 18 rebounds as Gonzaga outrebounded South Carolina 41-36. Collins tallied for six of the Bulldog’s eight blocks.
“It’s incredible,” said Collins who shot 6-of-10 from the field. “I knew I wasn’t making plays like I was the first two games in our last two games so I wanted to come out and just do everything I could to give us a chance to win. We have a resilient team. They made a run, they’re a great team.”
South Carolina erased a double-digit deficit when the Gamecocks went on a 16-0 run to take a 67-65 lead with 7:06 remaining.
Gonzaga regained momentum as Collins and Karnowski scored Gonzaga’s next seven points including a three pointer from Collins and a posterizing dunk by Karnowski.
“That run South Carolina made on us, that just shows just the hear of a lion that they have, that Frank instills in them, that they get from him,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “And it took everything we had to hold them off and come back. I was just really, really proud of our guys, our late-game execution.”
With 3.5 seconds left, Gonzaga fouled Sindarious Thornwell, who then made his first free-throw but missed the second on purpose. Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie secured the rebound, was fouled and made two free throws with 2.2 seconds left to push the Bulldogs lead to four points and eventually secure the win.
“A lot of red to Gonzaga,” said South Carolina coach Frank Martin whose team shot 37.9 percent (25-of-66) from the field compared to Gonzaga’s 48.3 percent (29-of-60). “We struggled to defend them in the first half and kind of stopped playing offensively the right way in the first half, at the end, last two and a half, three minutes. But they had a lot to do with that. It wasn’t self-inflicted wounds.”
Thornwell, the SEC Player of the Year, led South Carolina with 15 points on 4-of-12 shooting. His performance snapped a four-game streak of scoring 20+ points. Fellow senior Duane Notice added 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting.
“They just crowd the paint. My drive, they forced me to pass it out on my dives. And just protecting the rim real well,” Thornwell said. “That was really it. Just forced me to pass the ball on my drives.”
Gonzaga will be looking for its first NCAA Championship in school history in all sports. Monday’s Championship tipoff is set for 6:19 p.m.