<\/p>\n
I rarely punish teams on winning streaks. That’s the long and short of it. So even when Gonzaga<\/a> had close calls this month against sub-80 NET teams like San Francisco<\/a>, Santa Clara<\/a> and BYU<\/a>, I kept Mark Few’s program in the top five of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 because the Zags were still winning and, again, I rarely punish teams on winning streaks.<\/p>\n But the winning streak is now over.<\/p>\n Gonzaga lost 68-67 to Loyola Marymount<\/a> late Thursday inside The Kennel despite closing as a 16.5-point favorite. So the Zags’ 11-game winning streak \u2014 featuring a victory over Alabama<\/a> \u2014 is done. Gonzaga’s 75-game winning streak inside the McCarthey Athletic Center is also done<\/a><\/span>, as is Gonzaga’s streak of 93 straight victories against unranked opponents.<\/p>\n “It was going to end sometime, and it ended in a tough, hard-fought battle,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “Our guys battled back [from nine points down] and had a shot to keep it going. \u2026 I don’t think anybody is going to touch that [75-game winning streak at The Kennel] for quite some time.”<\/p>\n All of the streaks that ended Thursday are amazing.<\/p>\n Ninety-three straight wins against unranked opponents. Seventy-five straight wins inside The Kennel (part of 76 total “home” games). Thirty-six straight wins in the month of January. It’s honestly not as crazy that the Zags finally lost a game like this as it is that the Zags had not lost a game like this in what felt like a billion years.<\/p>\n That’s important to remember.<\/p>\n Still, it is a rare \u2014 in fact, it’s the first ever \u2014 Quadrant 3 loss for the Zags, whose resume is suddenly dinged-up. They’re now 3-3 in Quadrant 1 and 5-0 in Quadrant 2 \u2014 or 8-3 in the first two quadrants with one additional loss falling in Q3. That’s not bad but also not quite top-10 good. Consequently, Gonzaga is down to No. 14 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Zags’ next chance to add a Q1 win to help offset this Q3 loss will come two weeks from Saturday when they play at Saint Mary’s<\/a>.<\/p>\nTop 25 And 1 rankings<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n