Gonzaga advances to second round of March Madness with win over Grand Canyon

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Slow-starting Gonzaga finally started playing like a title contender, then wore out Grand Canyon 82-70 behind 28 points and 10 rebounds from Julian Strawther in the NCAA Tournament Friday.

Zags senior Drew Timme brought his sweatband and handlebar mustache back to March Madness and finished with 21 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the third-seeded Bulldogs (29-5), who haven't lost a first-round game in the tournament since 2008.

Next up for Gonzaga is a game Sunday against the winner of a West Region contest between TCU and Arizona State.

Like almost every Zag outside of Strawther, Timme was bottled up and frustrated in the first half, then came out of halftime and looked like a different player. After trailing by as many as seven, Timme's three-point play gave Gonzaga a 48-40 lead early in the second half.

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Drew Timme of the Gonzaga Bulldogs dunks the ball against the Grand Canyon Antelopes during the second half in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena March 17, 2023, in Denver, Colo.  (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Grand Canyon's Ray Harrison answered with a driving layup on the next possession. After that, Gonzaga went on a 16-0 run during which the 14th-seeded Lopes (24-12), champions of the Western Athletic Conference, missed 11 straight shots and fell behind by 22.

With the game a laugher, the rowdy Grand Canyon fans, who for a while had reason to dream about an upset of their own, had a chance to turn their attention to the end of No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson's shocker over No. 1 Purdue playing on the big screen above the court.

But there was no