Nolan Hickman scored 12 of his team-high 19 points after halftime and Graham Ike and Anton Watson posted double-doubles to lead No. 11 Gonzaga to a 76-57 win over Syracuse in a losers bracket game at the Maui Invitational on Tuesday.
The Bulldogs (3-1) got 16 points and 14 rebounds from Ike, and 12 points and 13 rebounds from Watson. Ike, a 6-foot-9 redshirt junior forward, also came up with four steals. Ryan Nembhard added 11 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
Gonzaga, which led by as many as 23 points late in the game, outrebounded the Orange (3-2) 48-28, and held a 25-8 advantage in second-chance points.
“It was a really, really, really good win for us with such a quick turnaround and playing in a breakfast bracket early morning, so I really, really proud of our response. We came out with great energy, we came out with great effort and obviously great toughness as it showed with the rebounding differential,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said.
Syracuse got within 51-45 with 9:39 left in the game on a Maliq Brown two-handed dunk that was set-up by a Judah Mintz bounce pass that split a pair of defenders. But, the Bulldogs answered with a 15-5 run that was punctuated by a steal by Ike that led to a breakaway dunk by Ryan Nembhard, giving Gonzaga a 66-46 cushion with 4:17 to play.
The game featured a pair of coaches on opposite ends of their career; Few is in his 25th season at Gonzaga and is the winningest active coach in Division I, while Adrian Autry has three wins in his first season as Syracuse coach.
Judah Mantz had 22 points and JJ Starling 15 for Syracuse.
Gonzaga led at the half, 39-25.
“Again, kind of the same thing — rebound the basketball, playing better defense — that’s the thing that we have to do better, it’s glaring. I think we understand that and we just gotta keep working at it, get better. There’s no moral victories here. We just have to get better at it and it’s just plain and simple,” Autry said.
Chaminade vs. UCLA
Freshman Sebastian Mack scored 16 points, Lazar Stefanovic added 13 points and UCLA beat Chaminade 76-48 on Tuesday in the Maui Invitational.
UCLA (4-1) will play No. 11 Gonzaga (3-1) in the fifth-place game on Wednesday.
Adem Bona added 12 points and Aday Mara grabbed 10 rebounds for UCLA. Mack, who scored 25 points in a 71-69 loss to No. 4 Marquette on Monday, was 7 of 15 from the field with six rebounds and five steals.
UCLA scored 13 of the opening 15 points of the game and added a 15-0 run for a 28-4 lead with 11 minutes remaining. Chaminade made three straight 3-pointers to get within 15 points and the Silverswords trailed 36-21 at the break.
UCLA turned it over 14 times in the first half before finishing with 18. Chaminade also had a 9-0 run in the second half, on three 3-pointers, to get within 45-35 with 14:24 left. But that’s as close as the Silverswords would get. UCLA secured it by scoring 14 straight points to make it 72-44.
Tennessee vs. Purdue
Fletcher Loyer scored 27 points, Zach Edey had a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds and No. 2 Purdue escaped with a 71-67 win over No. 7 Tennessee in the Maui Invitational semifinals on Tuesday.
The Boilermakers (5-0) separated in the final minutes with a game-closing 10-6 run to deny the Volunteers (4-1).
The teams were whistled for a combined 52 personal fouls and Tennessee coach Rick Barnes drew a technical foul in the first half. Subsequently, there were 78 free throws attempted; Purdue shot 29 of 48 from the line, while Tennessee went 21 of 30.
Loyer shot 7 of 18 from the field and 10 of 11 from the free-throw line. Edey made 7 of 10 field goals, but missed his first six free throws and finished 9 of 17.
The Boilermakers shot 19 of 54 from the field (35.2%), while the Volunteers were 19 of 57 (33.3%).
After he scored 13 points in the first half to help give the Volunteers a 31-30 halftime lead, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht was held to just three points after the break. Jordan Gainey scored all of his 15 points in the second half.
Kansas vs. Marquette
Oso Ighodaro had 21 points and nine rebounds as No. 4 Marquette routed No. 1 Kansas 73-59 in the Maui Invitational semifinals.
The early-season clash of top-5 teams with national title hopes ended up being one-sided. The Golden Eagles led for all but 22 seconds and were up by 17 with about seven minutes to play. Ighodaro shot 9 of 15 from the field and scored 14 points in the second half.
Chase Ross added 12 points and six rebounds, and Kam Jones scored 10. Kevin McCullar Jr. had 24 points and eight rebounds to pace the Jayhawks.