Fans root Zags into title game
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press Christy-Lee Comrie of Post Falls, left, and her 20-month-old son, Greyson, joined her mom Trish, good friend Lynne Blackwood and brother Austin to watch the Gonzaga game at Crickets in Coeur d'Alene. "The culture is like the '12th man' of the Seahawks," Trish said.
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press Monica Brennan, left, and David Ewell of Coeur d'Alene join Duane Justis of Hauser and Scott Anderson of Coeur d'Alene in celebrating the Gonzaga men's basketball victory Saturday in Capone's.
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press Capone’s bartender Ajay Archuleta reacts as Gonzaga beat South Carolina in the Final Four on Saturday.
COEUR d’ALENE — The entire building shook as the crowd at Coeur d'Alene Capone's let loose a symphony of cheers and howls for the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
“I’ve been waiting 20 years for this,” Duane Justus of Hauser cheerfully said after drumming on the bar and handing out high-fives after Gonzaga, in its first appearance at the Final Four, beat South Carolina 77-73 to advance to the national championship game Monday night at 6 vs. North Carolina.
"I've seen them win a lot of games and get knocked out in the Elite Eight and the Sweet Sixteen," Hauser added. "To see them battle through all this is hard to put into words because you've waited so long for them to be rewarded for their wins. And now they've got it. It's unbelievable."
"And they deserve it," added Coeur d'Alene's Scott Anderson, who cheered on the Zags with Justus. "It's amazing. Amazing. It's great for Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, it's great for the whole area. And it brings so much to everything."
Just about every television in every downtown/midtown Coeur d'Alene establishment was tuned to the game. Roars of excitement rolled out of Cricket’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar, which was packed with people and passionate Gonzaga fans.
Christy-Lee Comrie of Post Falls and her 20-month-old son, Greyson, joined her mom Trish, brother Austin and good friend Lynne Blackwood decked out in Zags gear. Christy-Lee played basketball all through school and has a special place in her heart for the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
"It's almost like I'm vicariously living out a bigger dream of basketball just being involved in the community and seeing our local team go that far," she said. "I feel the same amount of excitement from the game as if it were me myself playing."
"Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, northern Idaho, it's all kind of a magic culture anyway," Trish said. "But the culture that surrounds Gonzaga basketball is because of (head coach) Mark Few, and the culture is like the '12th man' of the Seahawks. It's so embracing, so inclusive that you don't have to be alumni to be a fan."