CHICAGO – If a stat line of 19 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks can be misleading, Domantas Sabonis’ was fairly close.

The 6-foot-11 Gonzaga center had his way on the glass at times, granted, and did ignite a Bulldogs run in the second half for a chunk of his 15 points in the latter 20 minutes, but each time he had a finger in the vicinity of a missed shot or received an entry pass in the post, there too was Tyler Lydon, Tyler Roberson and sometimes even a third Syracuse player to hound the Lithuanian.

Sabonis threatened to pick apart the zone as the “inside” of Gonzaga’s lethal inside-out offense with Kyle Wiltjer manning the perimeter, foul line and short corner. But despite his double-double, Sabonis was battered by a Syracuse frontcourt that turned in a man-amongst-boys performance against one of the best big men in the country in 10th-seeded Syracuse’s (22-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) 63-60 win over No. 11 seed Gonzaga (28-8, 15-3 West Coast) that propelled it to Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup with top-seeded Virginia.

“Obviously you’ve got a great player like Sabonis and you have to be aware of that,” Lydon said. “He can get deep post position…with that being said, you have to be able to come back and play good defense on him.”

While Wiltjer steam-rolled through the first half with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 mark from deep, Sabonis was rendered ineffective on the offensive end. Almost every time he got the ball he was on the left block. Almost every time a drop step followed. And almost every time he struggled to get a shot off or did so while highly contested.

On one occasion, he cleanly caught a ball on the low block before turning for what would’ve been a left-handed hook shot. He had Lydon one-on-one, but Roberson swiftly slid down and forced Sabonis to fumble the ball out of bounds instead.

“Tremendous effort from those two guys,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said, “…really tremendous effort.”

Rarely did one of his game-high 17 boards come cleanly, with double- and even triple-teams contesting and then surrounding him once he landed and looked to kick the ball back out. On one of Sabonis’ defensive rebounds in the second half, SU freshman point guard Frank Howard rushed in and threw two hands onto a ball Sabonis had in his grasp to draw a jump ball, and it was that kind of thorn in Sabonis’ side that prevented him from establishing any rhythm down low.

But when Lydon sat at the beginning of the second half, leaving Dajuan Coleman to guard Sabonis, the Syracuse big man picked up two quick fouls that prompted Boeheim to thrust Malachi Richardson to the scorer’s table to check in and shift Roberson over to center before Lydon checked in 11 seconds later. This time though, the tandem of Tylers wasn’t as effective and quick close-outs on Wiltjer turned into feeds to Sabonis. At times Syracuse resorted to fouling, a la when Lydon threw him to the ground with an extended arm and the nearby Gonzaga contingent pleaded for a technical foul.

“He held his own out there, especially when he launched him across the court,” Lydon’s father Tim said with a smile after the game. “That was nice.”

But the more frequent result was an easy lay-in that gave the Bulldogs the same breathing room it had to start the game, as Gonzaga opened up a nine-point lead with 6:30 to go following a Sabonis putback.

And after forcing Trevor Cooney out of bounds on the sideline near Syracuse’s bench with Gonzaga clinging to a five-point lead three minutes later, Sabonis turned toward the court, fully flexed his arms and let out a roar while his face turned beet red.

“We were in a big hole with not that much time to go,” Boeheim said.

It could’ve been Sabonis to seal Gonzaga’s win by continuing to dominate the glass but Roberson mounted, clawed and scrapped his way to three rebounds in the final minutes.

It could’ve been Sabonis to give Gonzaga a lead with under five seconds left when he stood open under the hoop while Josh Perkins drove at Lydon and instead opted to shoot himself.

And it could’ve been Sabonis when he had one last chance to keep Gonzaga’s season alive with a three-quarters-court heave as time expired.

But it wasn’t Sabonis. It was Syracuse, somehow, some way, living to see another game.

Published on March 26, 2016 at 12:36 pm

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