Baylor Denies Gonzaga a Perfect Season, Winning N.C.A.A. Men’s Basketball Title

The Bears’ stifling defense powered them to an 86-70 victory over Gonzaga, which was one win away from being the first undefeated champion since 1976.

INDIANAPOLIS — There was a symmetry about Gonzaga’s arrival in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball championship game — the unbeaten Zags bidding to be the first unblemished champion since Indiana, the state’s flagship basketball school, last accomplished the feat in 1976. That Gonzaga, the small Jesuit school tucked away in the Northwest on the less urbane side of the Cascade Range, rolled up with a freewheeling offense, one that would appeal to the basketball cognoscenti’s “Hoosiers” sensibilities, was all the better. A Gonzaga victory would have also put a bow on an anomalous season that was played through the coronavirus pandemic, when about one in five games — including a first-round matchup in this tournament — were called off and some teams went weeks without being able to play.