BYU Ruins No. 1 Gonzaga’s Perfect Season With Shocking Upset Win

Gonzaga began Saturday evening undefeated with hopes to finish the 2016-17 college basketball regular season 30-0, but their West Coast Conference rival BYU had other plans.

Undefeated no longer!

BYU takes down No. 1 Gonzaga, 79-71 pic.twitter.com/5H1vjPVpm8

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 26, 2017

.@BYUbasketball defeated Gonzaga at the Kennel for a third straight season, upsetting the Bulldogs 79-71. #BYUhoops #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/H6Olgetu1L

— Campus Insiders (@CampusInsiders) February 26, 2017

From CBS Sports:

Gonzaga managed to lose after opening up with an 18-2 advantage at the start of the game. What? At the start, it seemed like it was going to be a strut to the end. Then BYU leaned in and forced Gonzaga to play with adroitness, but instead GU tripped. BYU’s Eric Mika picked this game to be the best of his career so far, going for 29 points and 11 rebounds. Saturday night was the first time Gonzaga faced a second-half deficit in 15 games. Some Bulldogs fans were wondering if GU needed a fight before March in order to stay fresh. Well, sure, maybe Gonzaga needed to be punched. BYU bloodied its knuckles before dropping GU to the canvas.

Gonzaga will not be 30-0, it will not forever be established in college basketball’s record books as one of the lucky few to run the regular-season table. BYU waited until its final regular-season game to flash its potential. The was the Cougars team that many thought would prevail most of the season, the group that should have been in the conversation for easy at-large consideration.

MBB | Scene at the final buzzer as @BYUbasketball pulls off the 79-71 upset at No. 1 @ZagMBB #WCChoops pic.twitter.com/zyyY23bBnN

— WCC Basketball (@WCChoops) February 26, 2017