Down goes No. 6 Gonzaga: Loyola Marymount snaps Zags' 75-game home win streak
SPOKANE - When you play with fire, it's only a matter of time before you're going to get burned.
The Gonzaga men’s basketball team let another unranked opponent linger around late into the second half, but this time, they weren’t able to pull off a Houdini-like escape.
Loyola Marymount shocked No. 6 Gonzaga 68-67 on Thursday night on a short runner off the backboard from Cam Shelton with 11.1 seconds left.
After Shelton scored, the Zags called a timeout to set up a final shot. But a chaotic final possession led to a short miss from Drew Timme and a long miss at the buzzer from Julian Strawther.
LMU was competitive from start to finish, jumping out to a 7-5 lead behind forward Keli Leaupepe, who finished a layup and nailed an open 3-pointer in the first five minutes.
The Zags (16-4, 5-1), who had shot 2-for-8 from the field to begin the game, responded with seven answered points, capped by a 3-pointer from guard Nolan Hickman to put his team ahead 12-7.
Gonzaga appeared to have found a rhythm on offense, but its production quickly dried up, as All-American forward Drew Timme couldn’t get going. Timme had two points on 1-for-6 shooting in the first half, as he struggled to finish in the paint against LMU’s big men, including Leaupepe.
Hickman and Rasir Bolton supplemented Timme’s usual output, combining for 17 first-half points to keep Gonzaga in front until halftime.
Following the intermission, Timme’s inability to score at his usual rate eventually proved too much to overcome for the Zags, who fell behind 55-47 with roughly 10 minutes to play.
But just as LMU seemed ready to pull away, Timme scored 12 of his team’s next 14 points to cut the deficit to five points by the two-minute mark.
Timme’s scoring surge ignited Gonzaga’s offense, as a 3-pointer from Hickman made it a two-point game, before Anton Watson stole a pass and threw down a dunk on the other end to tie it at 66 apiece.
The Zags went ahead on a free throw from Timme, but Shelton’s go-ahead bucket won the game for the Lions.
Shelton was LMU’s top-scorer with 27 points on 11-of-23 shooting, while Timme’s 17 points led Gonzaga.
The Lions' win was their first against Gonzaga since 2010, and it ended a historic 75-game winning streak for the Zags at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
"The home streak is over," said Gonzaga head coach Mark Few. "It was going to end sometime and it ended in a tough, hard-fought battle. Our guys battled back and had a shot to keep it going. ... I don't think anybody is going to touch that (streak) for quite some time."
Gonzaga will go on the road to face Pacific on Saturday and Portland on Jan. 28.
