Five games into NCAA Tournament play at Moda Center this week, fans had seen some entertaining — and sometimes great — basketball.

Then came Gonzaga vs. Memphis to take things to another level.

The Bulldogs attracted a full complement of Northwest fans to the arena for Saturday night’s battle for a spot in next week’s Sweet Sixteen.

With 20,000 fans — probably 18,000 of them Gonzaga partisans — stoking the decibel meter to ungodly heights, the teams went to war for 40 minutes. It’s no stretch to say the game had a Final Four feel.

Memphis jumped to a 10-point halftime lead, but the Zags showed what they are made of with a second-half rally that thrust them into the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh consecutive season.

In the first game, UCLA took care of Saint Mary’s to write its ticket to the Sweet Sixteen for the second straight year.

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GONZAGA 82, MEMPHIS 78 — Gonzaga is not just the No. 1 seed of the Portland tournament. The Bulldogs (28-3) came in as the country’s No. 1-ranked team and the No. 1 overall seed.

Memphis (22-11), the No. 9 seed, wasn’t in awe at all.

“I went out there and felt like we were a one seed,” said Tyler Harris, a 5-9 senior point guard who came off the bench for 13 important points for the Tigers.

Memphis played like it for much of its second-round slugfest with the Zags, who gave as well as they took.

“As physical a game as we’ve been in all year,” Coach Mark Few said.

Memphis had the best of it through a first half in which it pounded the paint for 20 points en route to a 41-31 halftime lead. Gonzaga’s vaunted big men — 6-10 junior Drew Timme and 7-foot freshman Chet Holmgren — managed six points between them. Holmgren picked up two fouls and played only 10 minutes in the half.

But things changed at halftime. Timme saw to that, delivering a pep talk to his teammates in the locker room.

“This could be the last 20 minutes of basketball you ever play,” Timme said. “Go out with no regrets.”

Few thought Timme was playing, well, timid through the first 20 minutes. Timme missed a couple of, well, gimmes, and wasn’t aggressive in working for shots. And it wasn’t just him.

“I was mildly agitated that we were playing soft,” said Few, emphasizing the word “mildly” for effect. “It was mostly on offense. (The Tigers) had gotten up into us, and we were running around on the 3-point line. Once we cleared that out and cleared up some of our defensive coverages, things got better.

“I don’t know if (Timme) was as assertive as he needed to be. We said, ‘Let’s establish Drew and see if we can run some stuff through him.’ ”

Timme let his play do the talking from that point, scoring the Zags’ first 11 points in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second half to draw them within 45-42.

“We got the lead up to 12 (with the first basket of the second half); then the Drew Penne effect came into play,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said. “He got every offensive rebound and bucket for them for awhile. He made some fantastic shots. We played great defense, and he still made them. That’s why he is who he is.”

Jalen Duren, Memphis’  6-11 freshman center, picked up his fourth foul and departed with 14:30 left. Four minutes later, DeAndre Williams, the Tigers’ 6-9 senior, left with his fourth personal. Seconds later, Timme made a jumper to push Gonzaga in front 58-57 with 10:17 left, and the Bulldogs never trailed again.

Timme finished with 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting to go with 14 rebounds and four assists — two of them lobs for dunks to Holmgren. Timme looked like Cooper Kupp on one play, catching a long pass from Andrew Nembhard over the shoulder and laying it in backward for as pretty a layup as you’ll see to push Gonzaga ahead 63-59 with 8:24 remaining.

Memphis kept coming, knotting the game at 66-66 with less than six minutes to play. Then Timme fed Holmgren for a throw-down and Nembhard buried a 3 to make it 71-66. The Tigers never got closer than three the rest of the way.

“In that little stretch,” Hardaway said, “they got their confidence and we couldn’t get the ball in the basket.”

“Loved the fight,” Few said. “We had to dig very deep. The way we came out fighting the second half was more who we are. We did a great job executing all our late-game stuff down the stretch to get it done.”

Nembhard scored 10 points in the final 4:37, including a pair of 3’s and then four straight free throws over the final 23 seconds. The senior point guard finished with 23 points and five assists while playing the entire 40 minutes. Nembhard made 6 of 7 free throws on a night when the Zags were 13 for 24 (.542) at the line.

“It’s so easy to get shots off with a guy like (Nembhard) who controls the whole game,” Timme said. “He played 40 minutes and then iced the game at the line — who does that?”

Said Few of Timme and Nembhard: “These two are our leaders. It’s their team. Our backs were at least pressed against the wall — I don’t know how firmly — and they responded.

“Andrew was spectacular. Memphis turns (opposing) teams over and demoralizes them with pressure and physicality. We ended up with seven turnovers and played the game at our pace, and a big part of that was him. Hitting those late free throws when everybody else was smoking them for us was the most impressive thing of the game to me.”

Holmgren never got loose offensively but finished with nine points, nine rebounds and four blocks in 30 minutes, including the entire second half.

Hardaway was proud of his players’ effort against the nation’s top-ranked team.

“It’s hard to beat them,” he said. “You have to beat them for the entire 40 minutes. Their horses came to play and did what they had to do. … we want to play the best. Our guys got a clinic on what it takes to be professional and how to do whatever it takes to win.”

Few was asked if the difficult test with Memphis would be of value as Gonzaga moves through the tournament, beginning with a Round of 16 date with Arkansas.

“The games are all tough in their own way,” the veteran Gonzaga coach said. “The 1-16 matchup is a real mental situation. You don’t want to be the one that gets upset by the 16. From here on, they’re all tough and physical.

“These guys are battle-tested. They’ve been through everything. I’m ecstatic for this whole group that they get to go through this week at home, with students at school and fans back in the stands. This is so cool that they get to enjoy it and come home to a campus that’s been going nuts. And then it’s back to war.”

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UCLA 72, SAINT MARY’S 56: A year after guiding his Cinderella Bruins to the Final Four, Mick Cronin has them in the 2022 Sweet Sixteen.

UCLA shot superbly — 26 for 46 (.565) from the field, 4 for 9 (.444) from 3-point range and 16 for 19 (.842) — and committed only six turnovers to give the Pac-12 a chance for two teams in the Sweet Sixteen.

The Bruins had four starters score in double figures, and the fifth — Cody Riley — had nine points. At the defensive end, they contained the Gaels after the opening minutes with a mixture of man-to-man and zone.

“The guys played great,” said Cronin, two days ago awarded a six-year contract extension running through the 2027-28 season. “They all stepped up their games. Six turnovers — that’s a mark of how we played. We didn’t give up easy baskets. Best-case scenario for us; Logan Johnson played great and we still won.”

Johnson, Saint Mary’s senior guard, scored eight quick points to stake the Gaels to a 16-9 lead, but then struggled to get good looks the rest of the way. He finished with 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting.

It didn’t start well for the Bruins (27-7). The Gaels (26-8) made six of their first nine shots from the field and controlled the action 20-13. From that point, though, UCLA tightened the defensive screws and Saint Mary’s began pressing, going 8 1/2 minutes without a field goal and missing 11 straight shots. The result was a 17-2 run that gave the Bruins a 30-22 advantage.

“We tried to make them into a non-passing team and make guys score off the dribble,” Cronin said. “We wanted to make them an iso one-on-one team.”

UCLA’s lead was 36-29 at the half. Saint Mary’s trimmed the difference to 38-37 four minutes in, but the Bruins built it back to 54-44 with nine minutes left. Saint Mary’s got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“It just took some time,” Cronin said. “They were 6 for 9 (from the field) to start the game; from that point they were 14 for 40. Saint Mary’s is a great defensive team. We shot 56 percent — that just doesn’t happen to them. And we got to the foul line.”

Saint Mary’s guards Tommy Kuhse and Alex Ducas combined to make 9 of 25 shots from the field, including 4 of 16 3-pointers.

“We lost to a good team,” Gaels coach Randy Bennett said. “I wish we’d have played better, though I’m sure UCLA had something to do with that. It wasn’t one of our better games. You want to play well against a team like UCLA in the second round of the tournament. We did for awhile, but not long enough to win that game.

“You’ve got to hit some shots. In the second, it was a one-point game at one point, and we got some good shots. They made shots. We didn’t make shots. They doubled the post and bothered us. And on the defensive end, we didn’t do a good enough job.”

The only negative for the Bruins was an ankle injury suffered in the second half by 6-7 junior Jaime Jaquez Jr., who scored all 15 of his points in the first half. Cronin was asked if he thought Jaquez would be ready to play in next Friday’s Round of 16 matchup with North Carolina.

“When we get to Friday, trust me, if he can walk, he’ll play,” Cronin said.

“If he couldn’t play, we’d miss him,” point guard Tyger Campbell said. “He’s one of the best players in the country.”

I wouldn’t go that far. Jaquez is a good player, but not as important to the Bruins as Campbell, a 5-11 junior who led the Bruins with 16 points, had four assists and three rebounds and made 8 of 8 shots from the foul line. Campbell led the Bruins with a plus/minus ratio of plus-22.

UCLA and North Carolina were scheduled to play in December. The Bruins had to pull out because of a rash of COVID cases.

“I was first,” Cronin said. “Now we play them with the season on the line — that’s all.

“I watched their game with Baylor (a 93-86 win in overtime). I was wondering who the No. 1 seed was. Can’t play much better than Carolina’s playing. They’re shooting the lights out.”

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