Josh Perkins NCAA Championship Game 2017: Stats & Highlights

Josh Perkins (Getty)

Josh Perkins carried the load for Gonzaga in the first half of the NCAA Championship.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore has provided the spark that the Bulldogs have needed to gain an edge against North Carolina in the first half, but the Bulldogs couldn’t hang on in the end.

UNC pulled ahead with a 9-2 run to close the game and win the 2017 title, 71-65.

Before the game, Perkins had scored 26 points all tournament long with a high of 11 in Gonzaga’s victory against Xavier in the Elite Eight. But he shattered that mark in the first half against the Tar Heels.

Here’s a look at Perkins’ final stats for the game:

Points: 13
Assists: 3
Rebounds: 2
Field Goal Percentage: .375

Entering the championship game, he was averaging 8 points, 3.1 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game for the season.

Perkins was highly recruited out of high school. He was ranked as the No. 6 point guard in the 2014 national class and received interest from a slew of highly-touted programs. That list included Gonzaga, UCLA, USC, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota and Syracuse. He eventually cut it down to a list of three schools — UCLA, Gonzaga and Minnesota — and committed to the Bulldogs on August 24, 2013.

Here’s a look at the video highlights from Perkins in the championship game:

This post will be updated.

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