Time to celebrate
It was an afternoon of milestones Saturday for West Coast Conference women’s basketball champion Gonzaga, a title the Bulldogs picked up for the third consecutive season Thursday.
With the opening tip at McCarthey Athletic Center, Bulldogs senior Katy Ridenour set the school record by appearing in her 122nd game. With 1 minute, 26 seconds to play, senior Stephanie Hawk blocked her third shot, the school-record 153rd of her career.
Just to make sure those records weren’t bittersweet on Senior Day, GU put an early smackdown on San Francisco on the way to a 57-37 win.
Gonzaga (21-9 overall, 13-1 WCC) pushed its conference record in three championship seasons to 38-4.
“They’re all pretty special,” Hawk said of the titles. “Every team is different. You get to share it with different players every year. It’s nice to go out as champions.”
The one thing the Bulldogs haven’t done is win the conference tournament and the NCAA tournament berth that goes with it. They’ll try to rectify that when they open the WCC tournament against host Portland (10-19, 2-12) at 2 p.m. Thursday.
“Obviously, we want to win the tournament and play in the NCAA,” Graves said. “But the regular season means more. It’s a two-month grind, eight different sites, you play everyone twice and they have a chance to scout you. It means a lot.”
The Bulldogs are assured a postseason game because the NIT has guaranteed all 31 conferences a spot in the 48-team field. The berth goes to the highest finisher in conference play that does not make the NCAA tournament.
That’s the future, but Saturday there was a little business to take care of and the Bulldogs didn’t waste any time. They used a 13-0 run to open a 15-2 lead less than 5 minutes into the game. Even when they misfired on their next six possessions, they kept the Dons (9-20, 3-11) from scoring.
“We’re famous for those long stretches of offensive deficiencies, so to speak,” Graves said. “Defensively, we were there. One thing this team has done better than any team I’ve had in the past is when we want to lock down on somebody, we’re pretty good at taking that person out of the game.”
The USF drought was 7:25 and the Zags’ lead never fell to less than a dozen the rest of the way. The Dons shot 32 percent and had 26 turnovers. Dominique Carter scored 12 points, two less than her average, but no other USF player had more than six.
“When we play defense we’re very, very tough to score on,” Hawk said. “It’s very fun to play defense and defense gets our offense going.”
Hawk, who should be named WCC Most Valuable Player on Monday, led the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds, her 11th double-double of the season and ninth in 14 WCC games. Freshman Heather Bowman, who has a great chance to be Freshman of the Year, added 12 points and seven boards. Ridenour, who has never missed a game, had 11 points.
The Bulldogs only shot 33 percent in the first half when they led 27-15. They improved to 46 percent in the second half.
“This one is sweet,” Graves said. “Two years ago we beat people so bad they weren’t in very many games. This year we had to win some games in the second half, down the stretch, in overtime. We really did have to grind. We’ve had some injuries (and) through it all they’ve persevered.”