Gonzaga's undefeated season ended on the wrong side of a blowout on Monday night. The Bulldogs fell, 86-70, to No. 1 seed Baylor in the NCAA Tournament Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The Zags never led, as the Bears proved better from the opening tip all the way until the final horn. Baylor jumped out to an early 9-0 lead in the first three minutes and maintained a double-digit lead through halftime. In the second half, Gonzaga managed to cut the deficit back down to single digits, but the Bears quickly responded with another scoring surge that opened up a commanding lead down the stretch.
Get the fastest scores, stats, news, LIVE videos, and more. CLICK HERE to download the CBS Sports Mobile App and get the latest on your team today.Here's a look at everything Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said in the postgame press conference after the Bulldogs fell to Baylor in the national championship game:
"It's a really, really tough one to end a storybook season on. But, listen, Baylor just beat us. They beat us in every facet of the game tonight and deserve all the credit. And obviously, we're all disappointed in here, but, you know, as I told the guys, like, you make it this far and you're 31-0 going into the last one, the last 40 minutes of the season, there's absolutely nothing you should ever feel bad. And they'll look back on this season as time passes as something just amazing and incredible. But hats off to Baylor. They dominated us on both sides of the ball."
"It's weird, I never felt like we played with that weight all year. I always felt like we were the aggressor and we were always, I call it attack mode. And we just ran into a team tonight that was, they were the aggressor, clearly. So I think that put us back definitely on our heels on both ends.
"And, look, I've been watching them all year and watching last year and I knew they were going to be a handful for us. Just those guards are so quick and they can all get to their own shot.
"They're obviously more athletic than we are up around the rim. But I thought we might be able to find some advantages, too, and we just weren't quite able to do that. And I think we got it to nine a couple times. And man, we did everything. We missed free throws. We have some tough turnovers. And you can't do that when you're trying to claw your way back in.
"And then all the while I kept checking our DER. And we were never consistently really able to get stops against these guys. So they deserve all the credit. They were terrific. And, quite frankly, they were terrific this whole weekend here at the Final Four.
"They were just on it. And sometimes it goes like that during the season when your team kind of ebbs and flows. And they were definitely hitting on all strides."
"Obviously, it's a tough turnaround. It was more just the aggressiveness and the athletic, just the athleticism of Baylor that just had us on our heels. I don't know that it was due to our fatigue. And, yes, again, usually when you're the most aggressive team you're going to get the calls and you're going to get, you're going to make the plays. And I mean they were just clearly way more aggressive than us pretty much the entire night. So I don't think that was because of fatigue at all, no."
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