Color Zags winners

Pink became red at McCarthey Athletic Center Thursday night.
On Think Pink night, an occasion to raise awareness of breast cancer, the Gonzaga women’s basketball team embarrassed San Francisco 90-42.
Heather Bowman scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Courtney Vandersloot had 18 points and eight assists. Eleven Bulldogs played at least 11 minutes and all scored.
Gonzaga (18-7, 9-1 West Coast Conference) shot 56 percent, had more rebounds (46) than USF had points, scored 25 points off 21 turnovers, had 21 fast-break points and racked up 20 assists to three for the Dons.
“Looking at the rebounds and assists, I’m not surprised by the score,” Bowman said. “We just played our game and that’s the result.”
It wasn’t supposed to go like that. The Dons (13-11, 4-5) didn’t give up a fast-break basket and only committed eight turnovers in the first meeting the Zags won 74-70.
“Part of it is we only had two more games at home and we made that an emphasis,” Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves said. “We wanted to show we were better than we played last week. We wanted to pressure the ball and we really wanted to push it.”
“We worked on it all week, but when it came time to put it on the floor we just didn’t do it,” said USF coach Tanya Haave. “I think we still have some of the awe factor – this is Gonzaga.”
The Dons also feature 5-foot-11 senior Dominique Carter, who was tied with Bowman for the conference lead in scoring at 19.5 points a game. But Carter rarely touched the ball and only got off five shots, hitting two, before sitting out the last 13 minutes.
“She’s definitely a big focus,” Bowman said, “but we’ve got Jami Bjorklund. We call her ‘Carter Buster’ and we play team defense.”
Carter had seven points in the first meeting, but in the five games after that she averaged just less than 24, including a 35-point outburst.
“Don’t let her get the ball,” Bjorklund said. “The whole time, don’t let her get the ball.”
No one picked up the slack. Necolia Simmons had 17 points and Central Valley grad Heidi Heintz had 10, but no one else had more than five and the Dons shot just 31 percent.
“Clearly, they’re a better team, but we aren’t that bad,” Haave said. “We don’t, on a consistent basis, know how to compete at their level and aren’t willing to work hard enough.”
Gonzaga had a couple of dry spells in the first half. The Bulldogs went 0 for 5 with two turnovers in a 3:35 stretch midway through and hit just 1 of 9 in the last 5 minutes but still managed to build a 44-21 lead. That’s because the rest of the time they rarely missed – making 16 of 20.
The Zags were hot from the outset, making their first nine shots, including three 3-pointers, plus two free throws for a 23-6 lead. When Vandersloot finally missed, almost 6 minutes into the game, Maria Hassett grabbed the rebound and scored. Vandersloot followed with a floater from the lane for a 27-9 lead before the first dry spell.
USF only managed to get back within 12 when the Zags heated up again, pushing the lead to 40-19 before the final 5-minute drought.
“We’re all just playing team basketball, and when you do that you get open shots,” Vandersloot said. “Luckily, we knocked them down.”
Gonzaga shot 62 percent in the first half.
The Bulldogs face San Diego (13-10, 4-5), the preseason conference favorite, in their Senior Day game at 2 p.m. Saturday.
“We have to treat every team like it’s the second-best team,” Bowman said.