THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Zags' 'D' saved them from a 'dump-trucking'

Admit it.

You didn’t think the rally was coming this time.

BYU was too sharp, too focused, too deadly from everywhere on the floor.

The Zags are no strangers to seeing 53 points on the board at halftime — but this trip around the dance floor, it was the other guys.

Gonzaga was on life support at halftime of the WCC tournament title game Tuesday night — barely breathing, staring up at a 12-point deficit against a team that was doing anything it pleased.

BYU drilled nine 3-pointers in the first half, and not because the Cougars were lucky.

Those shooters had time, and hey, the Cougars DID lead the conference in connecting from deep this year at a handsome 40 percent.

So…

Where were the Gonzaga defenders in that nightmare first half?

Well, as ESPN’s Seth Greenberg put it: “They weren’t making BYU feel them.”

Feel them?

Hah.

It was more like the Cougs were enjoying a pregame shootaround.

ALL THE Gonzaga critics had been waiting for this game.

They wanted to laugh, and say it proved that the Zags didn’t have enough game when somebody really took it to ‘em.

It was all over Twitter.

The Gonzaga collapse.

Ho, ho, ho!

Meanwhile…

As the naysayers were hooting it up at halftime, what about the Zags?

Were they feeling sorry for themselves?

It was an option.

As Corey Kispert said: “We could just roll over and let them keep on dump-trucking us.”

Instead, as Mark Few has been preaching again and again, they could let their defense change a game.

“That’s really where our points come from,” Few said.

So…

In the second half, we got to see that the Zags are a lot more than offensive ballerinas.

They jumped into the Cougs’ shirts and absolutely refused to let them breathe.

“We took away their space,” Kispert said.

Oh, yeah.

That BYU bunch that rolled up 53 in the first half was held to 25 the rest of the way.

And maybe the most remarkable stat of all…

Gonzaga’s string of double-digit victories jumped to 24 straight with a stunning 88-78 triumph.

IF YOU just catch a few of the highlight shots from this historic victory, you might see Kispert’s three quick 3-pointers to start the second-half rally, or…

Jalen Suggs’ offensive explosion at the end, as the fantastic freshman hit drives and 3-pointers with the ease of a kid just playing in his driveway.

Really, though…

It was that hard work on defense that rescued this magical win.

Few used only seven players — the starters, plus Anton Watson and Aaron Cook — yet the Zags managed relentless, rugged, lung-busting defense for the entire second half.

It was tough.

Probably as much fun as mushing through the Iditarod in a head-wind blizzard.

Oh, but…

What a reward.

This was a win that moved Gonzaga another notch up among college basketball’s elite.

In its 81-year history, only 15 teams had managed to reach the NCAA while remaining unbeaten.

The Zags now have changed that number to 16, and they did it while carrying a No. 1 ranking in every poll from the preseason onward.

Sure, this last win was a gun-to-the-head kind of test.

But, hey…

The grueling escape made it beautiful.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which normally is published on Tuesday. It will run on Thursday this week.