Gonzaga women start slow, storm past UC Irvine 75-56 in first round of NCAA Tournament
Gonzaga needed a spark.
Offense has come easy for the Zags women’s basketball team this season. But Saturday afternoon, finding themselves in an early 17-6 hole, coach Lisa Fortier pulled out a seldom-used option.
Gonzaga switched from man-to-man to a 1-2-2 zone to start the second quarter and seemingly like flipping a switch, the fourth-seeded Zags withstood a hot start by the No. 13 UC Irvine Anteaters.
The Zags bottled up the Anteaters the final three quarters, pulling away to a 75-56 win in an NCAA Tournament first-round game before a boisterous sellout crowd at McCarthey Athletic Center.
The Zags played arguably their worst offensive quarter in the first. Fortier has emphasized defense all season, and Gonzaga caught fire on offense because the defense limited UC Irvine to one shot on most possessions.
“We weren’t defending very well,” Fortier said of the first quarter. “The message was, ‘We’ve got to get stops so we can run.’ ”
During the opening 4 minutes of the second quarter, the Zags forced four turnovers with the zone. All of a sudden, the double-digit deficit turned into Gonzaga’s first lead at 20-19 when Eliza Hollingsworth turned an offensive rebound into a basket 6:08 before halftime.
Nevaeh Parkinson scored down low to give what proved to be the Anteaters’ final lead at 25-23 at the 3:07 mark.
The Zags, who had missed their first eight 3-point shots, got 3s from Hollingsworth and Kaylynne Truong in the final 5 minutes to go with two baskets from Yvonne Ejim. That allowed Gonzaga to take a 30-25 lead into halftime.
Gonzaga made just 38% from the field (13 of 34) and 2 of 14 from 3-point range in the first half. But the shooting turned around measurably in the final two quarters, and it was connected to high-energy defense that jump-started the offense.
Gonzaga (31-3) extended its home winning streak to 35 and moved within one victory of matching the most wins in a season.
The 16th-ranked Zags will meet Utah in the second round at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
If it wasn’t considered an aberration before, Gonzaga’s bounce-back Saturday against athletic and physical UC Irvine (23-9) showed the Zags were not themselves in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship game.
The Anteaters, making their first NCAA appearance in 29 years, made Gonzaga earn everything. Still, the Zags outscored UC Irvine 65-39 the final three quarters.
UC Irvine is known for its pressure defense. The Zags finished with 12 turnovers, one below their average.
“We didn’t leave anybody on an island,” Kayleigh Truong said. “That was definitely one of our keys to success.”
UC Irvine outshot the Zags in the first quarter to build an early lead.
“Our team wants to play, they want to battle and they want to be in these situations,” UC Irvine coach Tamara Inoue said. “When they manned us, we could isolate and find some openings and get by them and create some mismatches. My team did a really good job of stepping up and doing that. We tried to get them on their heels initially.”
Then Gonzaga’s defense took over from the second quarter on.
“I think it’s 98% man for Gonzaga, so the 2% came out today,” Inoue said. “They did a really good job in it.”
Ejim had her 14th double-double of the season, finishing with a game-high 25 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the field, adding 14 rebounds and four assists. She needed just two field goals to break the single-season record for most field goals made set by Maria Stack (264) in 1984-85. Ejim has 275.
Kayleigh Truong added 16 points and five assists, and Brynna Maxwell, who missed her first five 3-pointers, had 11, including two 3-pointers. She’s made a 3-pointer in every game.
“I like that our team struggled, and we found a way to overcome a little bit of struggle in the first quarter,” Fortier said. “We weren’t at our best, but when you can be not at your best and put consecutive 20 points or more in each quarter after that, we’re just tough.”