TUCSON, Ariz. -- Another arena began going gonzo for Gonzaga midway through the second half here Thursday night at McKale Center, when a series of events forced the Louisville Cardinals mascot into self-torture.

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The big red bird slammed its big goofy noggin against a basketball standard once, twice and then a third time during a timeout after the Bulldogs took control of a game they eventually won 77-66.

Ahead 49-48, Gonzaga committed one of its 24 turnovers and Quintin Bailey raced downcourt for what he thought would be an uncontested layup, if not a resounding dunk, to give Louisville the lead.

But Bailey forgot who was wearing the other uniforms, namely Bulldogs senior guard Richie Frahm, who raced back behind Bailey and brought down the house when he slapped Bailey's attempt away from the rim.

Gonzaga gathered the ball, and Frahm wound up drilling a 3-point basket from the right side that gave his team a 52-48 edge to ignite the pro-Bulldogs crowd once again.

Louisville became disoriented, missed a shot and then the Cardinals bench was whistled for a quick technical foul, and Gonzaga had another upset in the works.

"Immeasurable," guard Matt Santangelo said of his fellow guard's flashes of brilliance in that momentum-changing sequence.

"That was an important part of the game, I know that," said Frahm. "The guy slowed down, and I just play hard. That's a crucial time. No layins allowed."

No bones about it, the Bulldogs are out to become national darlings once again.

They are seeded 10th, just like they were a year ago when they beat seventh-seeded Minnesota, second-seeded Stanford and then sixth-seeded Florida en route to the Elite Eight, where they lost to eventual national champion Connecticut.

Where last year the Bulldogs used their anonymous stature as hunchback-sized chips on their shoulders, this time around they are just as ornery because they want to prove that 1999 was no fluke.

Their victory Thursday evening was a start, and it was the first time a West Coast Conference team had won at least one game in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments since the San Francisco Dandy Dons of 1978 and '79.

This one had more meaning than last year's opener, however, which came against a Gophers squad fresh off revelations of an academic scandal that eventually cost coach Clem Haskins his job.

Thursday night, the Bulldogs defeated a fast and acrobatic Cardinals team, the likes of which Gonzaga didn't meet last year until the third round. And Casey Calvary keyed that upset of the fun-n-gun Florida Gators with a late tip-in.

These Bulldogs are different than those Dogs. In grand irony, coach Dan Monson moved on to Minnesota, and fiery point guard Quentin Hall graduated. They lost their top defender, Mike Nilson, to a blown right Achilles' tendon in the WCC Tournament opener two weeks ago.

The 'Zags won that tournament behind the 50 points Calvary tallied in the semifinal and final, but the Cards plugged the paint on Thursday to limit Calvary to only eight points.

With Calvary bottled up, Gonzaga trailed Louisville 32-25 with six minutes left in the first half.

"But seven points," Santangelo said, "isn't exactly anything to go calling home about."

Louisville didn't have any answers for Gonzaga in the first round Thursday night. (AP)

Santangelo might want to ring home to Portland to find out why he's waiting to pass or shoot until he's at the apex of a jump, but Thursday's game wasn't about him. It was about Frahm, who was everywhere for the Bulldogs.

He finished six shy of his career high with 31 points, hit four of his eight 3-point attempts and five of his six shots inside the arc, canned nine of his 13 free-throw attempts, yanked down seven rebounds and gave out three assists -- and one big block.

He had four turnovers, while Santangelo, Calvary and Axel Dench combined to turn the ball over 16 times.

"We haven't turned the ball over like that in years," said first-year coach Mark Few.

The Cardinals were just as erratic, although they only recorded 14 turnovers. They seemed stunned whenever they scored and found Gonzaga racing back to the other end to test them, and Louisville launched awkward shot after awkward shot.

Gonzaga shot 57.1 percent from the field for the game, while Louisville trickled in at 37.5 percent. Early in the second half, Louisville coach Denny Crum twice called 30-second timeouts after Bulldogs baskets to get his team to regroup.

Didn't work.

The Cards were so occupied with Dench, and especially Calvary, down low, the Dogs easily found open shots on the perimeter courtesy of the occasional simple pick.

Frahm wore Louisville down from the outside, and his lob inside to Calvary for an ally-oop jam with 7:23 left was met with stares instead of swats. And then Calvary swatted Nate Johnson's inside attempt back to Kentucky on the Cards' next trip down.

By the time Dench hit two free throws for a 66-58 edge with less than four minutes left, local ball boys were whipping the Cardinals mascot with white towels and poking it with a broom handle.

Gonzaga is just starting to flex its muscles, which caught one locker-room attendant by surprise late Thursday. After the Zags ran by, he said, "Where the hell is Gonzaga, anyway?"

It's in Spokane, Wash.

"Hopefully, this isn't the only win we'll get here," Santangelo said. "We didn't want to come here to win just one game. We have that chip on our shoulder, and we're still fighting for a little bit of respect."