Donovan Dent Hits the Winner With One Second Left as LSU Stuns No. 14 Gonzaga 81-80

Donovan Dent has a thing for the final second. The LSU point guard drilled a three at the end of the first half to send the Tigers into the locker room ahead, then did it again at the end of the second, rising up with one second on the clock to give LSU an 81-80 win over No. 14 Gonzaga on Saturday afternoon at Numerica Veterans Arena in Spokane.

Dent finished with 23 points and 10 assists in 36 minutes, on 9-of-21 shooting. Michael Ružić added 12 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks off the bench, and Abdi Bashir Jr. knocked down 5 of 9 from deep for 15 points, three of those threes coming in a frantic final five minutes. LSU trailed by 13 with 8:12 to play and closed the game on a 26-12 run.

LSU moves to 4-0 in Will Wade's first season back in Baton Rouge. Gonzaga, a 5.5-point favorite on the CBS Sports line, falls to 2-1 and sees its seven-game winning streak inside the arena come to an end.

A First Half That Refused to Settle

Nobody owned this game early. Xaivian Lee opened the scoring with a layup, Brice Dessert answered, and Dent turned an and-one into a 5-2 lead before scoring again for a 7-2 edge. Davis Fogle answered by picking off a Saliou Niang pass and feeding Javon Bennett for a layup, then setting up a Braden Huff jumper to tie the game at 8.

The first real separation came from Gonzaga's bench. Izan Almansa blocked a Niang jumper and threw down a dunk on the other end, then converted a putback for a 14-11 lead. Almansa stole the ball twice from Bashir in a span of 27 seconds, and Bennett added two steals, including one that turned into an Almansa dunk. Huff scored on back-to-back putbacks, Fogle finished a layup at 6:57, and Gonzaga led 24-17.

LSU never let it get further away. Dent scored LSU's next eight points on three layups and two free throws to keep pace, Skyy Clark tied it at 27 on a layup and again at 31 with a three off a Dent feed, and Dessert's layup knotted things at 33. Massamba Diop gave Gonzaga a four-point lead with a pair of layups in the final 1:13, the second off a Fogle assist. Bashir buried a three with 39 seconds left, Diop missed a dunk at the other end, and Dent pulled up for a three that dropped with one second left. LSU led 39-37 at the half after outscoring Gonzaga 22-13 over the final 6:57.

Gonzaga Looked Like Gonzaga

Clark hit two early second-half threes off Dent assists, the second giving LSU a 49-47 lead with 15:00 to go. Then Gonzaga found its gear.

Isiah Harwell tied it with a jumper at 14:37 and buried a three from Bennett to give the Zags the lead for good, or what looked like it. Huff made two free throws, Bennett scored on a layup, and after Huff ripped the ball from Clark, Harwell drilled another three off a Bennett pass for a 59-51 lead. Bashir answered with a three, but Huff hit a jumper, Harwell threw down a dunk on yet another Bennett feed, and Fogle hit a three from Bennett at 9:35. When Huff knocked down a jumper off a Fogle assist at 8:12, Gonzaga led 68-55.

That was a 21-6 Gonzaga run in under seven minutes, with Bennett assisting on four of the baskets. The game looked finished.

Ružić Changes the Math

It was not, and the reason was LSU's backup center. Ružić hit a jumper at 7:23, blocked a Huff layup on the next trip, and then took over the glass. On one possession around the six-minute mark, Ružić grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a foul, made one free throw, chased down the miss and scored the putback. The deficit was down to eight.

Gonzaga kept answering, at least for a while. Fogle hit a jumper, Bashir answered with a three off a Dent pass, and Almansa scored on a putback. After a Mo Dioubate layup, Lee, who picked up three fouls in the first half and played only 12 minutes, hit a three at 4:37 to push the lead back to 75-65.

Then Bashir happened. Bashir hit another three from Dent at 4:24, then blocked a Harwell three on the next trip. Fogle made two free throws at 3:50 for a 77-68 lead, but Ružić grabbed two straight offensive rebounds on the following possession, and Bashir drilled a third three off a Ružić kickout at 3:13. Fogle answered with a layup for a 79-71 lead with 3:01 left.

It was Gonzaga's last field goal of the game.

The Final Three Minutes

Ružić stepped out and hit a three off a Dent feed at 2:45 to make it 79-74. After a pair of misses, Ružić blocked an Almansa layup at 1:39. Dent drove for a layup and drew a foul at 1:30, missed the free throw, but Clark tracked down the offensive rebound. Bennett fouled Clark on the ensuing trip, and Clark made both at 1:14. Gonzaga's lead was down to one.

On the next possession, Lee was whistled for traveling. Dent missed a jumper with 49 seconds left and Huff grabbed the rebound, then Fogle missed a jumper and Almansa kept the possession alive with an offensive board. Clark fouled Fogle with 12 seconds left. Fogle made the first free throw and missed the second, and Niang snared the rebound with Gonzaga up 80-78.

Dent got the ball and buried an unassisted three with one second left. Fogle's desperation three at the horn missed, and LSU rebounded as time expired. The Tigers had closed on a 10-1 run over the final 3:01.

How LSU Won Without Shooting Better

Gonzaga made more field goals, 33 to 28, and shot 44 percent to LSU's 41.8. The difference was the three-point line. LSU made 12 of 27 from deep, 44.4 percent, while Gonzaga went 5-of-18. That is a 21-point gap from beyond the arc in a one-point game.

The Zags won the turnover battle easily, with LSU coughing it up 13 times to Gonzaga's seven and Gonzaga collecting nine steals to LSU's three. But LSU blocked nine shots to Gonzaga's four, with Dioubate swatting three, Ružić and Dessert two each. LSU also won the rebounding battle 42-40, and the late offensive boards by Ružić and Clark mattered most.

The bench gap was even starker. LSU's reserves outscored Gonzaga's 34-17, led by Bashir, Ružić and Divine Ugochukwu, who added seven points including an early three. Dioubate went 2-of-10 but grabbed 10 rebounds. Niang, who entered averaging a double-double according to LSU Athletics, finished with one point and five rebounds in 25 minutes and fouled four times.

For Gonzaga, Huff was terrific with 18 points and 13 rebounds on 8-of-16 shooting, a double-double in 36 minutes. Fogle, coming off a Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week award, filled the box with 15 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals but went 5-of-14 from the field, 1-of-6 from three and 4-of-7 at the line. Harwell scored 14. Bennett had five assists and four steals but also four fouls.

What It Means

For LSU, this is the first real result of the Wade reunion. The Tigers entered with three wins by 40 or more points, a program first per Gonzaga Athletics, but nothing like a ranked Gonzaga team in its own building. Dent, who Sports Illustrated noted played at New Mexico and UCLA and was once a Gonzaga recruiting target, delivered a winner in the program's first meeting with the Zags. There is also a little poetry for Wade, whose McNeese team lost to Gonzaga 86-65 in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, per LSU Athletics.

For Gonzaga, the loss stings mostly because of how it happened. A 13-point lead with eight minutes left, a nine-point lead with under four minutes left, and no field goals after the 3:01 mark. Lee's foul trouble limited the Florida transfer to 12 minutes, and the Zags were 5-of-18 from deep after shooting 13-of-24 in their 109-68 rout of New Mexico State. Fogle, a week removed from a career-high 22 against Purdue, was left with a missed free throw and a missed three.

Gonzaga faces Montana State on Tuesday, Nov. 17. LSU heads home to host ULM on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The full box score (opens in a new tab) and play-by-play (opens in a new tab) are at CBS Sports, and LSU Athletics posted its game recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: CBS Sports box score and play-by-play, LSU Athletics recap and game notes, Gonzaga Athletics game notes, Sports Illustrated. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

November losses do not sink Gonzaga seasons. November wins like this one, on the road against a ranked team, are the kind LSU will point to in March.

Photo: LSU Athletics.