In brief: Gonzaga women clinch 7th straight title

Women’s basketball: Courtney Vandersloot (in photo) had 28 points and 12 assists, Janelle Bekkering scored 24 points and No. 25 Gonzaga clinched its seventh straight West Coast Conference title with a 103-59 win over host San Francisco on Saturday.

The Bulldogs (24-4, 12-0) used a 23-0 run bridging halftime on the way to their 14th consecutive win. Kayla Standish added 21 points and Katelan Redmon had 16 for Gonzaga, which held the Dons scoreless for nearly 12 minutes.

Vania Singleterry scored 16 points for San Francisco (4-22, 1-11).

Gonzaga beat the Dons by 37 points on Jan. 22. It wasn’t much different in the rematch after the Bulldogs shrugged off an unusually slow start to post their seventh win by 40 or more points this season. It’s also the sixth time Gonzaga has scored at least 100 points.

Vandersloot, the Division I leader in assists, had nine in the first half then took over the scoring load in the second half when Gonzaga led by as much as 48.

The senior point guard scored 18 points in the second half, going 7 for 9 from the floor after the break.

The only miscues Vandersloot made came at the free-throw line. She went 8 for 10 while the rest of her teammates were 12 for 12.

Gonzaga led 27-22 with 5:05 left in the first half then scored 19 consecutive points to take a 46-22 lead into halftime. Redmon had eight of her points during the burst, including a 10-foot fadeaway shot at the buzzer.

The Bulldogs then scored the first four points of the second half and pulled away with a 23-5 run.

Associated Press

No recession for these guys

Baseball: National League MVP Joey Votto got the steepest pay increase in salary arbitration, with players receiving an average jump of 123 percent.

The Cincinnati Reds’ first baseman went from a $525,000 salary last year to an average of $12.7 million under a $38 million, three-year contract. The 24-fold hike was easily the largest, according to a study of contracts by The Associated Press.

The average raise of the 119 players in arbitration was up from 121 percent last year but down from the record 172 percent in 2009.

This year’s group went from an average of $1.68 million to $3.76 million.