Gonzaga women lead nation in scoring

Update: Tennessee guard Angie Bjorklund (U-Hi) has a sprained right foot and may sit out the Vols’ game against Mississippi State on Thursday. Apparently the injury happened over time and was not the result of a specific injury. She played 25 minutes on Sunday as No. 5 Tennessee defeated Auburn. Coach Pat Summitt said she may rest Bjorklund, who is second on the team at 11.3 points a game and the career leader in 3-pointers 2ith 283, until Sunday’s game at Arkansas.

Update: For the second week in a row, the third time this season and 11th time in her career, Gonzaga star Courtney Vandersloot is the West Coast Conference Player of the Week. After scoring 36 points with 18 assists and seven steals in just 52 minutes in a pair of lopsided home wins, Vandersloot shares the honor with Portland guard ReZina TecleMariam. TecleMariam, whose twin sister Ariam was a walk-on guard at Gonzaga, had 35 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists and 10 steals in 65 minutes as the Pilots edged the same two teams.

Yesterday I looked at the increased attendance for Gonzaga’s women’s basketball team.

Now I know why they’re second in the West Coast Conference behind the GU men. The Gonzaga women now lead the nation in scoring. The Zags average 85 points a game, with Oral Roberts second at 83.2.

But I found something even more cool when surfing the stats, FG% and not just because the Zags are 4th nationall at .489.

Check this out: 1, UConn. 2, Notre Dame. 3, Stanford. 4, Gonzaga. 5, Baylor.

What’s cool about that, even more-so than just being mentioned in the same company, is the Zags have played Stanford this season and last, the Irish last month and Baylor last season. And rumor is you could see the Bulldogs show up on the Huskies schedule in the near future.

In this week’s AP Top 25 , Baylor is No. 1, UConn is No. 2, Stanford is No. 4 and Notre Dame is No. 9.

So, what else did I find? Keep reading.

Gonzaga leads the nation in FG made at 34.1 a game, three more than runnerup North Carolina (a team the Zags beat in the NCAA tournament last year). They’re also tied with Connecticut at No. 1 in assists with 20 a game, with BYU (which lost at McCarthey earlier this season) third at 19.8.

All of that to go with Courtney Vandersloot leading the nation in assists for the second season in a row.

With numbers like that , it’s no wonder people are turning out to watch the Zags - that’s entertainment.

Graham Hays of ESPN.com has the Gonzaga game at St. Mary’s as one of his key games this week. The Bulldogs are up to No. 3 in the LeftCoastHoops power poll.

Not that there was ever a concern, but Florida Gulf Coast officially announced the transfer of Brittany Kennedy (Lewis and Clark) from Oregon State.