Bulldogs Pull One Out Late Free Throws Help Gonzaga Sink Montana, 68-65

The Gonzaga University women’s basketball team proved it wasn’t a fluke when the Bulldogs took the 19th-ranked team to the wire last week.

The Bulldogs made five clutch free throws in the final 67 seconds to beat the University of Montana 68-65 at Martin Centre Monday night, just their second win in 13 meetings since GU became a Division I school.

Washington held off the Bulldogs (5-3) 77-67 last Tuesday.

Catie Walker made 5 of 6 3-point shots for the Grizzlies in the second half, but she couldn’t sink her two free throws with 1:14 to play with her team clinging to a 65-63 lead. Seven seconds later, Sandy Gere was fouled on a 3-point attempt and she buried all three to put the Bulldogs up. With 11 seconds left, GU’s Lydia Ledgerwood made two foul shots and the Lady Griz (5-4) never got off a good 3 in two attempts.

“I was expecting them to be run-and-gun, try to play tougher than us,” said UM center Angella Bieber, a University High School graduate, who scored all 15 of her points in the second half. “They’ve improved a lot, but I wasn’t surprised.” In the first half, though, the game belong to another U-Hi grad, GU sophomore Sydney Perno, who played one season as the backup center to Bieber in high school. Perno had half her 18 points in the first half, taking the ball right at her friend, and GU opened a 33-23 lead.

“I wanted to have a good game against her because it was the last time I’ll play against her,” Perno said. “I was kind of fired up.”

That’s despite a friendly pregame visit.

“We reminisced before the game about me giving her elbows and her blocking my shots,” Perno said. Bieber did have a block on Perno in the second half, but Perno said, “I think I gave her a few elbows.”

Bieber and Walker fueled a second-half rally with Walker also scoring 15 points after intermission.

“I was a little nervous there,” GU coach Kelly Barney said. “We talked at halftime that we can’t come out flat; we have to have spark… . That’s been our bug-a-boo all year, but we got through it. We rebounded well in the second half and hit free throws in the clutch.”

Bieber had three baskets inside and Walker had three 3’s as UM caught the Zags in less than 6 minutes. From there it was tight and eventually there were 12 lead changes and seven ties.

“I don’t know if it was so much them; we didn’t perform offensively the first half… . We had 23 points at half, that’s ridiculous,” UM coach Robin Selvig said. “In the second half, we came to life and played real well offensively. We couldn’t quite overcome the little cushion we gave them right before halftime. That was the key time of the game.”

Perno’s last basket put GU up 63-62 with 2:23 to play. Walker’s 3 from the right put UM ahead 65-63 with 1:37 to go. The Bulldogs missed a shot and Perno fouled out, sending Walker to the line with 1:14 to go.

Gere’s free throws gave her 15 points and Ledgerwood’s gave her 12. Holly Turner added 13 points off the bench, hitting three 3s.

“We were really patient on offense,” Barney said. “We worked the ball and got good looks at the basket… . I was real pleased with our execution.”

Selvig was a little less than pleased after seeing his team outscored 21-9 from the foul line.

“Haven’t felt like this for a long time,” he said, “but you have to make plays. We built ourselves a little hole and they made the plays at the end.”

Gonzaga 68, Montana 65

Montana (5-4)- Sisco 3-9 0-0 6, Walker 6-8 0-2 18, Bieber 6-10 3-4 15, Cooper 2-4 2-2 6, Redpath 3-12 2-2 8, Harrington 3-5 0-1 6, Cummings 1-3 2-2 4, Weyler 1-4 0-0 2, Sackman 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 25-56 9-15 65.

Gonzaga (5-3)- Andrews 1-4 0-1 3, Gere 3-9 7-7 15, Perno 6-11 6-7 18, Deal 1-5 1-2 3, Ledgerwood 4-12 3-5 12, Turner 4-7 2-2 13, Jeffries 1-3 1-1 3, Waltz 0-0 0-0 0, Osberg 0-0 0-0 0, Tipps 0-2 1-2 1, McNairy 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-54 21-27 68.

Halftime - Gonzaga 33, Montana 23. 3-point goals - Montana 6-11 (Walker 6-8, Sackman 0-1, Sisco 0-2), Gonzaga 7-20 (Turner 3-4, Gere 2-6, Andrews 1-3, Ledgerwood 1-4, McNairy 0-1, Turner 0-2). Fouled out - None. Rebounds - Montana 35 (Bieber 7), Gonzaga 36 (Deal 6) . Assists - Montana 17 (Sisco 8), Gonzaga 15 (Ledgerwood 4). Total fouls - Montana 20, Gonzaga 17. Technicals - None. A - 553.

In other women’s games

Sarah Green scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Central Valley grad Kristin Hepton added 16 points and six rebounds to lead the Portland Pilots (7-2) to an 81-36 non-league win over the Eastern Washington Eagles (1-5) in Cheney.

Heather Dukes’ nine points led Eastern.

Lewis-Clark State defeated Whitworth 91-53 in Lewiston.

Because of technical problems, no other information was available.

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