Friday, February 04, 2011

Sometimes hot-shooting spurts in basketball just fizzle out. Last night, the University of Portland men made their first five three-point attempts against Gonzaga (play-by-play sheet). With a layup added on, the Pilots had a 17-4 lead over the Bulldogs five minutes into the game.

Portland then made only one of its next nine attempts from behind the arc. By the end of this Pilot cold stretch, Gonzaga had pulled ahead 53-43 (a 23-point turnaround from down 13 to up 10) with 8:48 remaining. The Pilots then started hitting threes again (5-of-7), but it was not enough, as Gonzaga prevailed, 67-64.

In the end, Portland made more than half of its three-point attempts (11-of-21), but this overall rate obviously obscures the changes in how the game flowed.

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