Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bulldogs can’t be held back


Pepperdine's Shanell Law puts the breaks on Gonzaga forward Katy Ridenour in a physical first half Saturday afternoon. 
 (Brian Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – There was a point during Gonzaga’s second-round game in the West Coast Conference women’s basketball tournament when the top-seeded Bulldogs, who would go on to defeat Pepperdine 58-40, had to be wondering on which planet they had landed.

The Bulldogs had just lost WCC player of the year Shannon Mathews to an ankle injury; scoring leader Ashley Burke was in early foul trouble; they hadn’t scored in more than six minutes, and the laws of physics – especially those relating to the shooting of a basketball – had seemed to have been repealed.

On the positive side, the Zags had somehow managed to survive the massive buildup of adversity and keep fourth-seeded Pepperdine in sight. And with backup forward Anne Bailey scoring 17 of her career-high 21 points in the second half, the 23rd-ranked Bulldogs also managed to extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 23 games and advance to today’s 1 p.m. championship game against third-seeded Santa Clara by bumping off the Waves in Santa Clara’s Leavey Center.

“Today, we actually gave the meaning to what ‘team’ is all about,” GU coach Kelly Graves said, after watching his Bulldogs make the WCC finals for the second straight year, despite losing Mathews – quite possibly for the remainder of the tournament – just 10 minutes into the game, missing their first eight shots and scoring only 16 first-half points.

“We had a lot of adversity, we weren’t playing particularly well,” Graves added. “And to gut one out like we did, I’m just really proud of this group.”

It was, indeed, a stirring effort by the Zags (27-2), who scrambled back from a 23-16 early second-half deficit to beat the Waves (12-17) for the third time this season. And they did it with Mathews, a 5-foot-6 senior point guard, providing little more than inspiration from the bench, where she spent most of the game sitting with her injured ankle iced up.

Bulldogs trainer Leanne Stockton said there was a 50-50 chance Mathews might play in this afternoon’s title game. But even if she doesn’t, the Bulldogs should be able to draw on the second-half success they had without her against Pepperdine.

“We just started freaking out,” Bailey said when asked how the Zags responded to seeing Mathews go down. “But after we had time to regroup and talk about it at halftime, we (realized) were still a team. That’s why we’re good.”

Bailey, a junior forward who lost her starting spot to junior Juliann Laney eight games into the season, did most of the heavy lifting during GU’s comeback and eventual runaway victory. She finished 9 for 12 from the field and scored 13 points – including nine straight – during an extended 33-9 run that put the Bulldogs up 49-32 with 6 minutes left in the game.

The Zags also got solid contributions from reserves Katy Ridenour, who had seven points and six rebounds while playing a career-high 31 minutes, and Delphine Lecoultre, who added a couple of key baskets and four rebounds.

Graves said depth has been one of his team’s strength’s all year.

“I don’t know how many (points) she had on Thursday against Portland – maybe a handful?” Graves said of Bailey. “Then she steps up tonight and has 21. It’s kind of been a different player every single game. It’s sure a luxury to have someone like her, Lecoultre and Katy Ridenour coming off the bench.”

First-year Pepperdine coach Julie Rousseau, who got 19 points and six rebounds from senior forward Jennifer Lacy, was also impressed with GU’s depth.

“It was the single most important factor in the outcome of the game,” she said. “Their depth just killed us. We were fighting, we battled, but we just didn’t have enough fresh bodies to put in, and they just wore us down.”

During their horrible first half, which included a 6½-minute scoring drought, the Bulldogs players were wearing expressions of confused despair on their faces, but Graves said he never felt like they couldn’t turn things around.

“One possession at a time, I can’t think beyond that,” he explained. “I knew the situation was a little more dire than it sometimes is, but that never crossed my mind.”

GU’s impressive second-half run rescued a game that had started as a real dog with the two teams missing their first 15 shots. At one point late in the first half, they were a combined 6 for 36 from the floor. The Bulldogs closed the opening period leading 16-15, despite shooting just 25 percent (6-24) and making only 1 of 9 3-point tries.

Pepperdine shot just 19.4 percent (6 of 31) in the first half and missed all of its eight 3-point attempts.

(24) Gonzaga 58, Pepperdine 40

Pepperdine (12-17)–Lacy 9-17 1-3 19, Ball 1-3 0-0 2, Stafford 2-9 0-0 4, Kennedy 1-7 2-2 4, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Law 0-12 2-2 2, Spencer 0-1 0-0 0, George 4-8 1-2 9, Wenski 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 17-59 6-9 40.

Gonzaga (27-2)–Burke 1-5 6-6 9, Jewell 3-10 2-3 9, Hawk 2-8 4-6 8, Mathews 0-1 0-0 0, Laney 0-0 0-2 0, Harris 0-1 0-0 0, Kane 0-2 0-0 0, Ridenour 3-5 0-0 7, Bailey 9-12 3-3 21, Lecoultre 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 20-48 15-20 58.

Halftime—Gonzaga 16, Pepperdine 15. 3-point goals—Pepperdine 0-15 (Lacy 0-1, Stafford 0-1, George 0-1, Wenski 0-2, Kennedy 0-3, Law 0-7), Gonzaga 3-13 (Burke 1-1, Ridenour 1-2, Jewell 1-7, Hawk 0-1, Kane 0-2). Fouled out—Ball, Lacy. Rebounds—Pepperdine 34 (George 6), Gonzaga 44 (Jewell 8). Assists—Pepperdine 14 (Kennedy 6), Gonzaga 15 (Jewell, Ridenour, Burke 3). Total fouls—Pepperdine 22, Gonzaga 13. A—NA.