Livescore
I rarely punish teams on winning streaks. That’s the long and short of it. So even when Gonzaga had close calls this month against sub-80 NET teams like San Francisco, Santa Clara and BYU, I kept Mark Few’s program in the top five of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 because the Zags were still winning and, again, I rarely punish teams on winning streaks.
But the winning streak is now over.
Gonzaga lost 68-67 to Loyola Marymount late Thursday inside The Kennel despite closing as a 16.5-point favorite. So the Zags’ 11-game winning streak — featuring a victory over Alabama — is done. Gonzaga’s 75-game winning streak inside the McCarthey Athletic Center is also done, as is Gonzaga’s streak of 93 straight victories against unranked opponents.
“It was going to end sometime, and it ended in a tough, hard-fought battle,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “Our guys battled back [from nine points down] and had a shot to keep it going. … I don’t think anybody is going to touch that [75-game winning streak at The Kennel] for quite some time.”
All of the streaks that ended Thursday are amazing.
Ninety-three straight wins against unranked opponents. Seventy-five straight wins inside The Kennel (part of 76 total “home” games). Thirty-six straight wins in the month of January. It’s honestly not as crazy that the Zags finally lost a game like this as it is that the Zags had not lost a game like this in what felt like a billion years.
That’s important to remember.
Still, it is a rare — in fact, it’s the first ever — Quadrant 3 loss for the Zags, whose resume is suddenly dinged-up. They’re now 3-3 in Quadrant 1 and 5-0 in Quadrant 2 — or 8-3 in the first two quadrants with one additional loss falling in Q3. That’s not bad but also not quite top-10 good. Consequently, Gonzaga is down to No. 14 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Zags’ next chance to add a Q1 win to help offset this Q3 loss will come two weeks from Saturday when they play at Saint Mary’s.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
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