Syracuse vs. Gonzaga: Score and Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2016

The Syracuse Orange, a team many didn't believe should even be in the tournament, is heading to the Elite Eight after outlasting the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Friday night, 63-60, in a battle of double-digit seeds at Chicago's United Center. 

Domantas Sabonis recorded a double-double of 19 points and 17 rebounds, and Kyle Wiltjer had a game-high 23 points for the No. 11-seeded Bulldogs, but it wasn't enough to hold off Michael Gbinije and the No. 10-seeded Orange.

Senior Gbinije had a team-high 20 points and scored what proved to be the winning basket with 22 seconds remaining for a 61-60 lead. Tyler Lydon then came up with a huge block on the other end before hitting two free throws to ice the win.

The team celebrated its victory via Twitter:

Gonzaga looked like the team to beat early and didn't seem to be bothered by Syracuse's 2-3 zone. It knocked down five of its first six shots, including three three-pointers for a 13-4 lead.

Jason Smith of Fox Sports Radio thought the law of averages should even the game out, unless the 'Zags kept shooting light outs:

It eventually did happen, but the Bulldogs stayed hot for a while, hitting their first four attempts from downtown, including three from former Kentucky Wildcat Wiltjer.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim tried to convey to his team it better clamp down on the sharp-shooter, per Brian Hamilton of Sports Illustrated:

They didn't necessarily slow down the senior, but they did use some hot shooting of their own to battle back and cut the lead to 23-20 at the 6:58 mark of the first half. By the time the first half ended, Syracuse was on a 6-0 run and cut the lead to 29-28.

The teams seemed to trade baskets the first eight minutes of the second half, when a Tyler Roberson layup cut the Gonzaga lead to 43-42 with 11:55 to play. Brent Axe of Syracuse.com was excited for what he thought was going to be a great finish:

He got his wish.

The Bulldogs went on a 14-9 spurt to open the game at 57-51 with 6:15 left to play. At one point during the run, Sabonis had six straight points. The sophomore is the son of former NBA center Arvydas Sabonis, and Eric Bossi of Rivals.com threw praise his way late in the second half:

He and Wiltjer had 70 percent of the team's points, and they could have used a little help from their teammates.

Once Syracuse switched to a full-court press, the Bulldogs were rattled and even gave up a 10-second call. Seth Davis of CBS Sports noted the strong effort from Syracuse:

However, it was some great half-court defense that sealed the win for Syracuse when they forced the Bulldogs to miss multiple shots in the paint late in the game before the eventual game-saving block.

Roberson nearly had a double-double with nine points and 12 rebounds, and Trevor Cooney added 15 points.

Syracuse has now gone from the First Four to the Elite Eight and will take on its ACC conference foe and No. 1 seed Virginia Cavaliers. At this point there is no way to think the Orange aren't up for any challenge, but they were 0-1 against the Cavaliers in the regular season, falling 73-65 on the road in a late-January matchup. 

Postgame Reaction

Anish Shroff of ESPN noted the irony of Syracuse’s run despite being one of the final at-large teams in the field:

The Orange may be moving on, but they already looked focused on Sunday's game against Virginia, as opposed to celebrating Friday's victory, in the postgame presser, per the team’s official Twitter account:

Boeheim praised his team following the come-from-behind victory, per ESPN.com.

"I'm proud of this team," he said. "They played their hearts out. We've been the underdog every game and they fight their way through it. We'll be the underdog again on Sunday, but we'll be ready."

Whatever the Orange are doing seems to be working, and at this point questioning Boeheim would seem pointless, but he did take an odd approach to scouting Syracuse’s potential Elite Eight opponent before the game, per Matt Schneidman of the Daily Orange:

Dan Wolken of USA Today thinks Boeheim is a man on a mission following the negativity toward his team during a season where he was suspended nine games following an academic misconduct scandal at the school:

It was a great win, but a tough loss for Gonzaga. Wiltjer didn't hold back when talking about how disappointed he was, per Jim Meehan of the Spokesman-Review: "We let this one slip, this was a winnable game and we lost. We should have won the game."