Women’s basketball: Elle Tinkle leads Gonzaga past BYU

Elle Tinkle scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting and Gonzaga closed out the regular season with a 73-66 West Coast Conference victory over Brigham Young Saturday in Provo, Utah.

The Bulldogs finished 16-2 in WCC play, tied for the most wins in conference history.

Keani Albanez added 15 points and five steals and Sunny Greinacher chipped in 12 points for Gonzaga, which made 15 of 27 shots from the field in the second half to hold off the Cougars (20-9, 12-6).

BYU’s Makenzi Morrison made 16 of 18 free throws and scored a team-high 20 points.

Next up for GU (23-6, 16-2) is the WCC tournament. As the top seed, the Bulldogs will play Friday in Las Vegas against Thursday’s winner between No. 8 Loyola Marymount and No. 9 Pepperdine.

Washington State 68, USC 62: Tia Presley poured in 28 points and Mariah Cooks added 13 points and a career-high 18 rebounds as the Cougars (16-13, 7-11) closed out the regular season with a Pac-12 Conference win over the Trojans (15-14, 7-11) in Pullman.

The win gave WSU the seventh seed heading into the Pac-12 tournament. The Cougars will play No. 10 Oregon Thursday in Seattle.

Presley made 11 of 13 free throws and moved into fourth place in WSU history with 1,504 career points.

Montana 69, Eastern Washington 59: Kayleigh Valley (University High) led four players in double figures with 19 points and added seven rebounds as the Grizzlies (21-7, 14-3) erased a nine-point first-half deficit and beat the Eagles (17-10, 10-6) in a Big Sky Conference game in Missoula.

Montana trailed 23-14 with 8:03 left in the first half, but closed the half on a 19-6 run.

The Grizzlies’ Maggie Rickman added 16 points and eight rebounds, Kellie Rubel had 12 points and nine boards and McCalle Feller chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds.

EWU’s Delaney Hodgins scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting and Hayley Hodgins added 14. The Eagles host Idaho State on Thursday and Weber State on Saturday in their final two regular season games.

Montana State 71, Idaho 62: Kalli Durham scored 20 points and dished out five assists as the Bobcats (14-14, 8-9) pulled away and beat the Vandals (12-15, 6-10) in a Big Sky Conference game in Bozeman.

The loss moved Idaho into ninth place in the conference standings – putting the Vandals on the oustide looking in for a berth to the conference tournament.

Idaho’s Stacey Barr led all scorers with 23 points, Christina Salvatore had 13 and Brooke Reilly added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Vandals will need wins against Weber State on Thursday and Idaho State on Saturday – both at home – and have help from other teams to make the conference tournament.

CC Spokane 59, Big Bend 58: Khadija Neumeyer scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds as the Sasquatch (16-14, 5-9) did just enough to hold off the Vikings in a Northwest Athletic Conference victory at Spokane Falls Community College.

Riley Jemmett had 22 points and eight rebounds for Big Bend (12-18, 3-11).