Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008

WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Zags spoil Huskies' opener

The Gonzaga women’s basketball team was finally able to end a lengthy winless drought against the University of Washington last year, defeating the Huskies for the first time in 18 meetings.

It looked as if the Huskies might regain the upper hand when the Bulldogs shot a chilly 2-for-24 from the field to open this year’s non-conference meeting, but a combination of offensive rebounds, Washington turnovers and a hot-shooting Courtney Vandersloot helped Gonzaga win again on Sunday, spoiling the Huskies’ season opener with a 64-59 victory at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Vandersloot, a graduate of Kentwood High, scored a game-high 20 points and teammate Tiffanie Shives added 19 to help the four-time defending West Coast Conference champions improve to 2-0.

Washington (0-1) had won the first 17 consecutive games in the series between the cross-state rivals before dropping the last two. They lost last season, 91-72.

“Give credit to Gonzaga,” said second-year Washington coach Tia Jackson. “They’re a fantastic team. They came in here and did exactly what we expected them to do. They rebounded like monsters and got Vandersloot the ball.”

The Bulldogs snagged 21 offensive boards, grabbing a 45-39 rebounding edge, and benefitted greatly from 31 Washington turnovers, which they turned into 32 points.

“They knew they were missing and they pursued even harder and that’s what hurt us,” Jackson said about Gonzaga’s rebounding success. “They get two shots on one possession, they’re going to score. We didn’t box out. That was the difference.”

Junior Laura McLellan was one of three Huskies to score in double figures, scoring a team-high 16 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Washington also received 11 points each from freshman Kristi Kingma and Sami Whitcomb.

McLellan hit double figures in the first half to lead the Huskies to a six-point cushion (30-24) at the intermission. Washington was unable to take full advantage of some horrid early shooting by Gonzaga.

Despite missing 22 of their first 24 field goal attempts, the Bulldogs never trailed by more than 10 points in the first half.

A Kingma 3-pointer capped a 7-0 UW run and extended the Huskies’ lead to 17-7 – the team’s largest of the game – eight minutes into the contest.

Shives drained a jumper from the top of the key and Vamdersloot followed with back-to-back buckets as Gonzaga outscored Washington 17-9 over the next eight minutes to pull within a basket at 26-24.

Vandersloot was the only Bulldogs player to find her stroke in the opening 20 minutes, sinking four of seven attempts from the field and chipping in nine points. The rest of the Gonzaga squad combined to make just six of 36 first-half shots (16.7 percent).

“We went into the locker room and knew we couldn’t get much worse,” Vandersloot said. “So we viewed it as a positive and not a negative.”

Twice in the second half Gonzaga was able to tie the score – first at 34 on a Vandersloot 3-point shot with 15 minutes, 26 seconds play, then on 3-pointer from Shives with just under 13 minutes left, making it 37 all – before the Bulldogs took their first lead when Shives drained a 10-footer with 9:17 remaining, giving Gonzaga a 43-42 advantage.

Washington scored the next three points to reclaim the lead, but the Bulldogs answered with a 7-0 run, highlighted by a Shives 3-pointer, to grab a 50-46 lead with under four minutes to play.

Vandersloot knocked down her third 3-pointer, then assisted on a Shives’ lay-up as Gonzaga’s lead grew to six points at 57-51 with 1:50 left.

“We talked about the fact that (Washington) didn’t separate from us,” said Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves about his team’s early poor shooting. “Sooner or later (the shots) would start to go in. At some point we’re going to get in a quick rhythm and go on a spurt and that’s how basketball games are won.”