Gonzaga Feeling Sweet

By DIANE PUCIN

March 14, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SEATTLE —

Now the kids from Gonzaga could laugh about this. Now the kids from the little Jesuit school in Spokane, Wash., who earned the school’s first NCAA victory over Minnesota on Thursday, could giggle about how long it took to finish off the second.

For an eternity, it seemed, the Bulldogs hung on to the 10-point lead over Stanford that became eight, then six, then four. Stanford, the No. 2-seeded team in the West Regional, which had gone to the Final Four a year ago, the big team from the big conference. Timeouts and turnovers, three-pointers and fouls, free throws made and missed. Two minutes on the game clock. Two hours in the head clocks.

But, finally, it was over. Gonzaga 82, Stanford 74. And the Bulldogs are going to the Sweet 16.

After upsetting No. 7-seeded Minnesota Thursday, a victory overshadowed by the Golden Gophers’ unfolding academic fraud scandal, the No. 10-seeded Bulldogs (27-6) played with immense heart and emotion, but also with considerable confidence. As Coach Dan Monson would say later, “this is no Cinderella story,” and by that he meant that the Bulldogs have a very good, very smart team.

Smaller and less bulky, Gonzaga outrebounded the Cardinal, 47-33. The Bulldogs had fewer turnovers (12 to 13 for Stanford) and more ability to make the nerveless shots.

And most of all Gonzaga had Matt Santangelo, a gym rat who practices with Gonzaga graduate John Stockton, and Quentin Hall, whose build resembles a bowling ball and who brought, along with a relentless game, an infectious good humor with him from the Bahamas where he grew up.

Santangelo, a 6-foot-1 junior, had 22 points, six assists and six rebounds. Hall, a 5-8 senior, had 14 points and eight rebounds. The most critical of Hall’s baskets was a nerveless three-pointer from 27 feet with 3:29 left that gave the Bulldogs a 66-57 lead.

But for the last two minutes, it seemed that time was standing still.

Santangelo, who once was offered a scholarship to Stanford, was afraid to even peek at the clock. Axel Dench, the 6-11 backup center who had arrived in Spokane from Melbourne, Australia, expecting a ski resort and finding instead a town covered in ashes from a forest fire, and Hall, who said he discovered cold and snow and culture shock upon arriving in eastern Washington, whispered to each other and counted down the seconds.

And most eager of all for this game to get over was Mark Spink, a skinny sophomore forward who had somehow held his ground when it came to fighting for rebounds against Stanford’s Mark Madsen, Tim Young, Mark Seaton and Peter Sauer.

So much heart and so much anguish accompanied this upset.

Last year the Bulldogs had watched on Selection Sunday as their 23-9 record, which included wins over Tulsa, Mississippi State and Clemson, was ignored by the NCAA. Having been upset in the West Coast Conference tournament, the desolate ‘Dogs went off to the NIT.

“This has been a quest for a year,” Santangelo said. “We were in agony last year and we all got together and decided that was not going to happen again.”

“But, really,” Spink said afterward, “I really didn’t know how we’d do on this stage. Honestly, I can’t believe it yet that we competed with these guys.”

Competed, yes, and almost dominated. Stanford (26-7) led only once, at 1-0. The Cardinal, champion of the Pacific 10--a conference against which the Bulldogs are 3-0 this season (and a conference that has bombed out of the NCAA tournament with a 1-4 record)--was always going uphill.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 13 points in the first half and 10 in the second. But they also remembered how Stanford overcame a six-point deficit against Rhode Island in the last 59 seconds of last year’s regional finals.

But after Arthur Lee (24 points) made two free throws with 40.5 seconds left to make the score 75-71, Hall came back to make two foul shots.

And after Lee missed and Spink rebounded, Santangelo made two free throws with 28.7 seconds left. Then Lee missed again and Richie Frahm rebounded and made two free throws with 21.5 seconds left.

“Those guys played with so much heart,” said Madsen, who had 15 points and 14 rebounds. “They might not have been the heaviest guys around, but heart goes a long way.”

All the way to Phoenix and the NCAA West Regional semifinals.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NCAA Tournament

West Regional

AT DENVER

Connecticut78

New Mexico56

Iowa82

Arkansas72

AT SEATTLE

Gonzaga82

Stanford74