Zags women end drought, whip Huskies by 19 points
It’s been forever since Gonzaga beat Washington in a women’s basketball game.
Forever ended Monday night when the Bulldogs beat the Huskies for the first time in 18 tries – 91-72 before 2,352 fans at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Though one-sided in a series that dates to 1983, this was only the third meeting for Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves, who kicked off his eighth season with the win.
“Any time you beat a team you recruit against it’s big,” Graves said. “I’m not naïve. They’re banged up; that’s not the best team they’ll put on the floor later. Tia (Jackson, first-year UW coach) is going to do a nice job. But we’re banged up, too. It’s a good win.”
Gonzaga played like the veteran team, with three starters back from last year’s first NCAA tournament team and the Huskies playing like a retooled team with a new coach.
“They are an experienced team; they return 10 letterwinners, so they definitely have a cohesion that showed on the court today,” Jackson said. “We wanted to limit some of (their) penetration, but they did a fine job of getting to the basket.”
The Bulldogs did it with ease in the first half, when they built a 55-33 lead.
They broke open the game with a 13-0 run late in the half, which capped off a 31-10 surge that started after the Huskies (0-2) had closed to 20-18 at the 11:36 mark. Jami Bjorklund started a 9-0 spurt and it was her three-point play with 31 seconds left that made it 51-27.
“We’re an up-tempo team,” said Bjorklund, who had 17 points to go with a game-high 10 rebounds. “Everyone is so talented and can create on their own. We can rely on everyone and we’re deep.”
Sophomore post Heather Bowman had 21 points, 16 in the second half after playing just four minutes in the first half. Freshman Janelle Bekkering, who missed last season with a knee injury, provided the first-half spark with 16 of her 20 points in her debut in the first half. Michelle Elliott added 13.
“It was really exciting,” Bekkering said. “I was nervous at first but once I made that first basket, it was all right.”
The Bulldogs shot 51 percent the first half and ended up with a 41-40 edge on the boards against the bigger Huskies, including 17 on the offensive end, despite starting Bekkering, a 6-footer, instead of 6-2 Maria Hassett.
“Since they’re big, we started small,” Graves said. “We wanted to spread them out and do what we did, take them off the dribble.”
GU also had 22 assists on 36 baskets with true freshman Courtney Vandersloot recording 10.
“I loved our energy in the first half,” Graves said. “We rebounded, pushed the tempo, swung the ball.”
The Huskies were led by sophomore Sami Whitcomb with 16 points. Michelle Agustavo had 11 off the bench. Katelan Redmon, a freshman from Mt. Spokane who had 19 in an 88-61 loss at Kansas State on Saturday, was held to six. She scored the game’s first basket – UW’s only lead – but only played three minutes after picking up two quick fouls. She shot 2 of 8 in the second half.
“You’ve got to stay out of foul trouble,” Redmon said. “Just stupid fouls.”
“More than anything she wanted to come out here and kill them, and she’ll probably tell you that,” Jackson added.
The Bulldogs, who start the season with four home games, face Nevada Saturday at noon and Montana next Monday.
Bulldogs 91, Huskies 72
Washington (0-2)—McNeill 3-8 3-4 9, McCormack 3-5 0-1 6, Florence 3-8 2-2 8, Whitcomb 6-10 2-2 16, Redmon 3-9 0-0 6, Bennett 2-6 2-2 6, Morton 0-0 0-0 0, Augustavo 4-9 0-0 11, Argens 2-3 1-2 5, Mosiman 2-6 1-2 5, Totals 28-64 11-15 72.
Gonzaga (1-0)—Bekkering 6-12 7-9 20, Bowman 9-13 3-3 21, Kane 0-3 0-90 0, Elliott 4-9 3-4 13, Bjorklund 8-14 1-2 17, Lorenzo 0-1 0-0 0, Hasssett 1-4 1-2 3, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Vandersloot 3-11 0-0 6, Shives 4-9 0-0 9, Raap 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 36-77 15-20 91.
Halftime–Gonzaga 55, Washington 33. 3-point goals–Washington 5-15 (McNeill 0-1, Florence 0-1, Whitcomb 2-3, Redmon 0-2, Bennett 0-1, Augustavo 3-7). Gonzaga 4-17 (Bekkering 1-2, Kane 0-3, Elliott 2-5, Bjorklund 0-1, Vandersloot 0-2, Shives 1-4). Fouled out–none. Rebounds–Washington 40 (Mosiman 8), Gonzaga 41 (Bjorklund 10). Assists–Washington 13 (Whitcomb 5), Gonzaga 22 (Vandersloot 10). Total fouls–Washington 15, Gonzaga 17. A–2,352.