Drew Timme inspires Gonzaga, leads second-half comeback to take down Memphis

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Drew Timme, the leading scorer for the top-seeded Gonzaga, took it upon himself to set the tone for the rest of the game.

Timme delivered a motivational message in the hallway before his team returned to the court, one he cleaned up in a postgame interview with CBS reporter Andy Katz, and summarized as "I don't give a flying F what happens at the end of the game."

The streak of seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances is one of the four longest in tournament history, joined by two from Duke under Mike Krzyzewski.

Timme scored the next seven points after Memphis opened the second half with a bucket. He scored 14 of the Zags' 16 points in a stretch when they cut the deficit to two, making a 3-pointer and hitting from a variety of difficult angles.

It seemed like he got every offensive rebound, every foul, and every bucket for them. He made them despite the great defense. That is why he is who he is.

Timme doesn't want to need second-half heroics.

He said that he would like to do a better job in the first half.

Mark Few said that he likes to feel his way into the games.

The Zags were slow in Portland for the second straight time. The Georgia State game was close at the half, but the Bulldogs went on a 21-0 run in the second half to win the game. Timme had a team-high 10 points in the first half but shot 3-of-7 from the field and missed 5 of his 9 free throw attempts.

In the first half, Timme scored four points on 1-of-3 shooting and 2-of-4 free throws. Facing a Memphis team that had won 13 of its previous 15 games after a 9-8 start, the margin of error was not the same as before.

Few didn't deliver a fiery halftime speech despite the Zags being 0-3 so far this season.

Few said that he didn't think he was screaming and yelling, but that he was somewhat agitated that we were playing soft.

Timme chimed in saying that it was reiterated.

Few had reason to be confident. The team was defeated by the Bears in the national championship game last year, but they faced a lot of obstacles.

Few referred to upperclassmen Timme and Andrew Nembhard as battle tested.

Hardaway recognized what happened to his team in the second half.

He said that the team was the more aggressive in the first half. We kind of shocked them. I knew they were going to make an adjustment after the halftime break because they were a great team. They were 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217

The Tigers were in the game until the end. Two free throws from Nolley II and a 3-pointer by Quinones brought Memphis to within two at 78-76, but they couldn't overcome the deficit.

On a night when the Zags shot 13-of-24 (52%) from the foul line, it was no guarantee that the Tigers would ever have an opportunity to tie the score or take the lead.

For him to step up and hit those free throws when everyone else was smoking them was probably the most impressive thing of the night, according to Few.

Hardaway was impressed by Timme.

The Drew Timme effect came into play as the team went into halftime up 10 and Hardaway said they were going to have to fight these guys.