Excited fans across Los Angeles tuned in Saturday to the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game between the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the UCLA Bruins.
Gonzaga can’t quite shake UCLA in the national semifinals.
The heavily favored Zags were up 69-67 at the under-8-minute media timeout after taking biggest lead at 66-59.
The upstart Bruins stayed close thanks to Tyger Campbell. He had a 3-pointer, then hit another bucket to cut the deficit to a pair.
Campbell has 15 points while Johnny Juzang leads UCLA with 19. Gonzaga’s Joel Ayayi has 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting.
Earlier in the game, UCLA was going toe-to-toe with Gonzaga. The Bulldogs, trying to keep their undefeated season going, had a 45-44 lead at halftime.
It was a wild first half, featuring 11 lead changes and six ties. The upstart Bruins led most of the way before Corey Kispert hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds.
Joel Ayayi leads top-seeded Gonzaga with 16 points and Johnny Juzang played all of the first 20 minutes and has 15 for UCLA, which is the fifth 11th seed to make the Final Four.
Gonzaga brought a 30-0 record into the game and is trying to become the first team since Indiana State in 1979 to carry an undefeated record into the national title game.
Waiting there is Baylor, which defeated Houston 78-59 in the earlier semifinal.