Mick Cronin, Jaime Jaquez Jr. explain what happened on go-ahead 3-pointer from Julian Strawther

UCLA and Gonzaga were locked into yet another March Madness classic last night. The Bruins took a 13-point lead at halftime before Gonzaga took a 10-point lead with 2:30 left in the second half. However, after another late UCLA run to take the lead back again, Mark Few put the ball in Julian Strawther’s hands and the junior made that decision count with a bomb of a three-pointer with seven seconds left to win it for the ‘Zags.

After the loss, Mick Cronin and Jaime Jaquez Jr. broke down what happened on that final play. For Cronin, it came down to how tightly they were playing Strawther. The Bruins detached from him on that play after staying connected with him all game long. That was all the room that he needed to send them home. Considering they harped on it and had noted it during film, Cronin was obviously displeased.

“We should have been tighter on Strawther. We were the whole game. And we just weren’t on that play,” Cronin said. “If we were tighter then he couldn’t have looped behind. We were sagging off…Dylan (Andrews) was off too far. That’s the answer to that.”

“That was our game plan against him all night because he’s made those shots,” said Cronin. “Xavier had them beat back in November. And he went behind and hit two 30-footers against Xavier.”

From Jaquez’s perspective, he was focusing on his man who performed the handoff to Strawther. The drive concerned him so he didn’t put himself in a position to help over too far. In the end, though, Jaquez credited him for hitting the big shot when his team needed it most.

“I was…guarding (Hunter) Sallis. I knew he was a driver and I had to play off him and kind of helped,” Jaquez said. “Like I said, he had a big shot. That was tough.”

UCLA closed the game on a 14-3 run to turn a 10-point deficit into a one-point lead. The biggest bucket was a three-ball from Amari Bailey to give the freshman his 19th point and the Bruins the lead with 12 seconds left.

Even so, they left the Bulldogs enough time to come out of their timeout with a great play call. It was reminiscent of Kris Jenkins’ game-winning three-pointer for Villanova back in 2016. Sallis, playing the role of Ryan Arcidiacano, came down the floor and handed it off to Strawther, who banged home the three from deep.

It was the second straight brutal end for Cronin, Jaquez, and UCLA at the hands of Gonzaga. Instead of Jalen Suggs, though, the shine now goes to Strawther as the Bulldogs now head to the Elite Eight.