LAHAINA --- The Gonzaga basketball team is used to making statements.
None was bigger in November than Wednesday night's thrilling 61-59 overtime victory over Cincinnati in the championship game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational at the Lahaina Civic Center.
''I'm just proud as heck of our guys, man,'' said Bulldogs coach Mark Few. ''That was a heck of a street fight and we survived it.''
Gonzaga (5-1), just the second team from outside the six major conferences to win the tournament --- joining Dayton in 2003 --- stayed alive to play overtime when Robert Sacre blocked Cincinnati's Yancy Gates on an alley-oop slam-dunk attempt at the buzzer in regulation, off a beautiful pass from Lance Stephenson.
Just seven of the previous 297 games in the 26-year history of the Maui Invitational had gone past regulation --- and it had never happened in a championship game.
The contest was in doubt until the final horn when the running layup attempt by the Bearcats' Cashmere Wright went awry and the Zags' Elias Harris corralled the rebound.
The dominant team in the West Coast Conference for more than a decade, Gonzaga erupted from midmajor status to a national power in college basketball on the strength of 11 straight NCAA tournament appearances --- including an Elite Eight and four Sweet 16s.
This was just another in a long line of benchmarks for the program from the 7,500-student school in Spokane, Wash. The Bulldogs survived a slow start Wednesday --- they shot 7-for-20 in the first half and trailed 23-19 at the break --- to hang around long enough to get past the Bearcats of the Big East.
Cincinnati (4-1), attempting to become the first team to win in its first Maui appearance since Kentucky in 1993, shot 2-for-7 from the free-throw line in overtime after going 3-for-4 in regulation.
''Cincinnati is playing some great basketball right now --- they are incredibly tough on both ends of the floor with just their physical nature,'' Few said. ''I just loved our guys' resiliency. I mean, it didn't go great early in all phases of the game, but we held with it and hung with it and stuck with the plan and made both offensive and defensive plays at the end of that game to win it.''
Few could only breathe a sigh of relief when he reached the media room.
''We stuck with it until the very end, including that last rebound,'' Few said. ''We said if we beat them on the glass we would win and we were plus-five, so I thought that was key. Boy, Cincinnati is a tough, tough team. Mick (Cronin, the Bearcats' coach) is doing a nice job with them. They are to be a force here down the stretch.''
Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin and Steven Gray shared tournament MVP honors.
''That was probably the most physical team I have played, this year definitely,'' Bouldin said of Cincinnati. ''I don't know about my four years here, but they were really, really physical. They are a great rebounding team.''
Sacre scored 14 points. Gray and Elias Harris each had 13.
Lance Stephenson scored 15 points for Cincinnati in the title game. The Bearcats went 8-for-31 from 3-point range.
The Zags did not lead in regulation after taking a 6-5 advantage early in the first half. They tied the game three times in the second half, the last when Sacre broke free in the lane and took a bounce pass off a pick-and-roll from Gray, then made a five-foot jumper in the lane to make the score 55-55 with 15 seconds left in regulation.
''You've got to keep feeding the big dog, especially when he is doing well,'' Bouldin said. ''I was really happy for Rob and the way he stepped up against Yancy Gates.''
Gates said Sacre made the perfect play.
''He came out and set the ball screen he was wide open and he made it real easy, him just going to the basket,'' Gates said. ''A lot of that was on Rob. I mean, he did everything.''
None was bigger than the ensuing play where Sacre went up with Gates for a block.
''That was big-time play,'' Few said. ''We were telling our guys they needed to bluff help, bluff help, but the message was trying to be sent to the perimeter players not the post players. We got a little excited and got up the lane and he made an incredible, athletic play to turn and go make that block.''
He added: ''it was a great read because it was open, but Rob closed it very quickly. Heck of a defensive play.''
Cronin said Gates might have been fouled on the play.
''Yancy told me he got fouled,'' Cronin said. ''The guys on ESPN told me he got fouled, but I am too short to see that. If he got fouled it is going to make it a long flight home.''
Gates had 11 points and seven rebounds Wednesday, after totaling 33 points and 22 rebounds in the Bearcats' first two tournament games.
In the overtime, Harris made a pair of foul shots to give Gonzaga a 57-56 lead with 4:23 left and after Steve Toyloy tied the score with a free throw 1:08 later, Sacre dunked off an assist from Gray to put the Zags in front 59-57 Gonzaga with 2:45 to go.
A free throw by Harris made the score 60-57 with 1:35 left. Gates' dunk with 12 seconds cut the deficit to one, and after Sacre made one more free throw with nine seconds left, Wright's runner just before the final buzzer glanced off the glass.
The Bulldogs joined a glamorous list of Maui Invitational champions.
''Obviously this is the pinnacle, the creme de la creme of all the preseason tournaments,'' Few said. ''I mean, this is the kingpin and any other analogy you would like to use and so that is why it is so special when you look up and you see all those great teams that have won this thing and then what they have accomplished maybe after they win this thing.''
Gonzaga defeated Colorado 76-72 on Monday and beat Wisconsin 74-61 on Tuesday.
''It makes you feel great for your guys,'' he said. ''The matter in which we had to win it. We had to dig ourselves out of a hole against Colorado, we played a very, very efficient basketball game yesterday against a Wisconsin team that if you don't play efficient you lose. Then we got in this backyard brawl tonight and we won it that way. We won it in a lot of different fashions, so I think that is a great sign right there.''
Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com
