Gonzaga NCAA tournament run ends with 87-65 loss to Syracuse

BUFFALO, N.Y. — In the end, Gonzaga went three time zones merely to confirm a widespread suspicion: There's still a gap between the Zags and the nation's best.

Gonzaga's locker room here Sunday had cleared out. The coach, Mark Few was outside, weighing in on the death of the basketball season.

"It comes down to matchups, guys," he said. "If you get matchups to your liking, you can go to a Sweet 16 or Elite Eight. It's happening all over the bracket.

"If you keep running into No. 1 seeds, guess what?"

For the second straight year, the Zags confronted a top seed, and fared no better Sunday against Syracuse than they did in 2009 in the Sweet 16 against North Carolina. Flailing on both ends of the floor, they fell heavily to the Orange, 87-65.

The lesson: When you're up against a team of national-championship caliber, either duck or bring your A game. The Zags did neither.

"If they play harder than you, you've got no shot," Few conceded. "And they played harder than us. Our defensive intensity and focus wasn't as good as it was against Florida State.

"Whether it was the moment, or ... a couple of our guys just had kind of a dazed look. We were not as intense and nasty as we needed to be."

The Zags flinched, at least some of them, and there was no room for flinching, not here in Syracuse's backyard, not against the Big East player of the year, Wes Johnson, who had 31 points. Not against a guy like guard Andy Rautins, impeccable at offing defenders around screens and converting treys.

Gonzaga got 6-of-29 shooting from its starting guards, an unsatisfactory complement to 41 points combined from Elias Harris and Robert Sacre. And yet, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim reminded people that his team played without center Arinze Onuaku.

"Those 41 points they got inside," Boeheim sniffed, "those would never have happened."

Let's be honest. As the Zags' tournament appearances go, this was hardly their best landing. As a No. 8 seed, they got shipped East to play Florida State, a voracious man-to-man team that the Zags solved. For their efforts, they got to turn around and meet the country's textbook practitioners of the 2-3 zone.

"We probably haven't seen a hundred minutes of zone all year," Few said.

Florida State was the No. 1 defensive team in the country. Syracuse, at 51.7, leads the nation in field-goal percentage.

Every day, a jolting new challenge. Saturday, Gonzaga had a 90-minute practice. Then it had a walk-through. Now go play Syracuse, colossus of the Big East.

Thing was, Gonzaga came out strongly. Matt Bouldin cast a lob pass over the zone, Harris converted, and it was 2-0 nine seconds in. And with four minutes left in the half, Syracuse led only 32-28. Then the wheels came off in an 11-0 'Cuse run, and Gonzaga couldn't take advantage of a third foul to Orange center Rick Jackson.

Rautins, who had 24, scored 11 straight Syracuse points at the outset of the second half and the surge became 28-6 and the score 60-34. 'Cuse made shots, 55 percent worth, sometimes with a hand in the face, sometimes when the Zags didn't make a defensive switch or mistakenly gave help in the post.

"Our 'D,' " said Bouldin, "was pretty awful."

The point is, at this level, you've got to be near-perfect.

At the other end, Few said, "We actually moved the ball better, got the ball to spots, got as good shots as I could have ever hoped going into the game."

No matter. Syracuse did what defenses have been doing, not guarding Demetri Goodson, and he didn't score in 20 minutes.

"Gonzaga has been up and down shooting the ball," Boeheim noted, "and when you don't make threes against us, it's going to be a tough day."

It was every bit of that.

The last Zags sauntered out of the locker room. It would be a long way home to Spokane, and seemingly, a long way to the likes of Syracuse.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com