Loyola Marymount Pulls Off Major Road Upset Against Gonzaga
Photo by Young Kwak / Associated Press
SPOKANE, Washington (PSF) - Gonzaga had their 76-game home winning streak snapped last Thursday when the Loyola Marymount Lions defeated the Bulldogs 68-67. With the longest such streak in the nation, Gonzaga’s last home loss came over five years ago. Auburn now holds the new record for the longest home win streak at 28 games.
As for the game, Gonzaga came into the contest as a 17-point favorite. It’s undoubtedly one of the larger upsets in college basketball this season. The game remained pretty close throughout. Gonzaga built a small lead at times in the first half, but the Lions hung in and were only down by one at halftime. The game was back and forth to open up the second half. Loyola Marymount held the lead down the final stretch until a Drew Timme free throw gave the Bulldogs the lead by a point with under one minute left. Loyola Marymount guard Cam Shelton connected on a crafty and off balance floater for the go-ahead bucket. That would ultimately be the winning shot for the Lions as Gonzaga could not score on their final possession.
Shelton was huge in the upset victory, scoring 27 points to lead the Lions. Timme led Gonzaga with 17. Gonzaga won 93 consecutive games versus unranked opponents before the loss. It was Loyola Marymount’s first win against Gonzaga in Spokane since 1991. They had lost 25 consecutive games to the Bulldogs prior.
Gonzaga struggled at the start of the year compared to years past with three losses early on versus Texas, Purdue, and Baylor. The Bulldogs don’t quite have the same talent this year and have struggled at times throughout the season. Despite their struggles, Gonzaga should still be in position to get a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Even the talented Gonzaga teams of recent years haven’t been able to go all the way, but if the Bulldogs can get hot at the right time, you never know.
Gonzaga lost to Baylor in the 2021 National Championship Game, 86-70. The Bulldogs have never won a National Title. (Photo by Robert Deutsch / USA TODAY Sports)
Gonzaga will likely fall in the next AP Poll rankings, along with the current number one team in the nation, the Houston Cougars. They lost by one point as well on Sunday at home to Temple in a very similar major upset. Houston was actually a 19-point favorite, which is even a slightly larger upset. Temple has some bad losses this season but have also beaten some talented teams in Rutgers and Houston. Number two ranked Kansas is another team that will fall quite a bit after consecutive losses, the second of which they lost by 23 points at home versus TCU.
As for Loyola Marymount, they won’t have much of any chance to make the NCAA Tournament unless they can somehow win their conference tournament to get an automatic bid. That will be a tough task to say the least with other impressive teams in the West Coast Conference like St. Mary’s, Gonzaga, Santa Clara, and BYU. Nevertheless, this upset over Gonzaga proves the Lions can contend with those other top teams in the conference.
