GU grinds out win
At times the Gonzaga women’s basketball team makes it look easy.
Thursday night, opening West Coast Conference play against Pepperdine, wasn’t one of those times.
But the three-time defending champions kept grinding away and pulled away late to beat the Waves 68-56 before 1,276 fans at McCarthey Athletic Center.
“It’s the first game all year we just had to grind it out,” Bulldogs coach Kelly Graves said. “To me that means we’re improving. I’m really proud of us. You get a lot more games like these in conference than you do those (easy) ones.”
The credit goes to rapidly emerging freshman point guard Courtney Vandersloot and senior leader Michelle Elliott.
Vandersloot, playing more aggressively on offense, held the team together with a career-high 19 points to go with eight assists.
“Coach has been talking to me about being more aggressive, looking for my shot,” she said. “He reminds me I have the ability to score.”
Elliott was the ultimate grinder, shooting poorly from the outside until it counted, and making up for 2 of 11 on 3-pointers by joining Vandersloot in attacking the basket for a game-high 22 points.
“I have no idea why (we were shooting so poorly),” said Elliott, who set a school record earlier this season with nine 3s in a game. “I think we were so pumped up we were rushing our shots too much. It was the first league game, it was Pepperdine. They beat us here last year, our only league loss. … When your outside shot’s not going you have to get inside. I think that’s what we did.”
Elliott’s 3-pointer from the right corner on an inbounds play late in the shot clock seemed to be the game-breaker in a 10-0 run, making it 61-52 with just over 3-minutes remaining.
The game turned on two statistics – rebounding and free throws.
In the first half Pepperdine (5-9, 0-1) made 6 of 9 free throws and had a 19-16 edge on the boards while Gonzaga (10-6, 1-0) didn’t get to the line.
“Even before the game Coach said the key was going to be the battle of the boards,” Elliott said. “After the first half we went into the locker room and everybody made a commitment to blocking out every single time.”
In the second half the Zags made 11 of 13 free throws to Pepperdine’s 2 of 3 and destroyed the Waves 30-13 on the boards, including a whopping 17 on the offensive end.
“You can’t really adjust on rebounds other than you tell your team you have to rebound harder. You just have to focus on it,” Graves said. “Pepperdine came out hard … they were scrappier than us. You know where else it showed, we didn’t get to the free-throw line in the first half.”
Vandersloot was the calming influence that kept the Bulldogs from getting frustrated when their shots didn’t fall – they were 3 of 19 on 3-pointers. She had 15 points in the second half, hitting 5 of 8 shots.
“As a point guard you’re kind of the leader out there,” she said. “When one person starts knocking down shots it gets the whole team going.”
Heather Bowman added 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Bulldogs. Guard Katie Menton, who averages 8.7 points, led Pepperdine with 15, 12 in the first half, but Daphanie Kennedy, who averages 17, was held to nine, making just three baskets.
Loyola Marymount (9-7, 1-0), which won 73-71 at Portland, visits Saturday at 2 p.m.