College basketball rankings: UConn holds firm, Gonzaga falls in Top 25 And 1 after Huskies’ dominant win

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It wasn’t a true road game because the non-league showdown was played in Seattle as opposed to 280 miles away on Gonzaga’s campus inside The Kennel. Regardless, it’s not often that a team goes into the state of Washington, plays in front of a pro-Zags crowd and mostly dominates Mark Few’s program from start to finish, but that’s exactly what happened late Friday at Climate Pledge Arena.

Final score: UConn 76, Gonzaga 63.

The Huskies led by as many as 18 and never trailed for a single second en route to winning by 13. They were led by Donovan Clingan, the 7-foot-2 center who took 11 shots, made eight of them and finished with a game-high 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 26 minutes.

“We’ve played the top teams in the country,” Clingan noted before adding, “I feel like it’s given us good momentum [heading into the Big East portion of our schedule].”

UConn is now 10-1 with wins over North Carolina, Gonzaga, Texas and Indiana; the Huskies’ lone loss is a 69-65 defeat at Kansas. That’s a strong resume that has UConn holding steady at No. 5 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona remains No. 1 for the 15th consecutive day heading into Saturday’s showdown with No. 2 Purdue in Indianapolis.

Gonzaga is down to No. 14.

“We just got to be able to step up and make shots in games like this,” Few said, noting that his Zags were 2-of-12 from 3-point range (16.7%) while their second-leading scorer, Graham Ike, was limited to just five points after averaging 14.2 points per game through Gonzaga’s first 10 contests. “You need ‘A’ games out of your best guys [to win games like this].”

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-rankings-uconn-holds-firm-gonzaga-falls-in-top-25-and-1-after-huskies-dominant-win/

Author : Gary Parrish

Publish date : 2023-12-16 15:29:46

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