Area women: Bulldogs romp past Gaels

Heather Bowman scored a game-high 20 points and Courtney Vandersloot finished with a double-double – 15 points, game-high 11 rebounds – to propel the Gonzaga Bulldogs to a 79-63 victory over the Saint Mary’s Gaels in West Coast Conference play Saturday in Moraga, Calif.

Tiffanie Shives added 13 points and freshman Janelle Bekkering scored 10 for Gonzaga (22-7, 13-1).

GU has won its fourth straight WCC regular-season title and has won 20-plus games for the fourth time in school history and third time under coach Kelly Graves.

Serena Benavente had 16 points for the Gaels (14-16, 6-8).

Top-seeded Gonzaga will play No. 8 seed Pepperdine in the WCC tourney opener on Thursday in San Diego.

“Katie Madison scored a game-high 28 points and Yinka Olorunnife snagged 13 rebounds to carry the Idaho Vandals (3-24, 2-12) to a 77-66 win over the San Jose State Spartans (2-26, 1-14) in Western Athletic Conference action in Moscow, Idaho.

“Clair Faucher and Kelli Valentine had identical 16-point, six-rebound efforts to lead the Portland State Vikings (20-7, 10-4) to a 75-71 win over the Eastern Washington Eagles (4-23, 1-13) in Big Sky play in Cheney. Nicole Scott tallied game highs of 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles.

“Torle Nenbee came off the bench and scored a game-high 13 points to spark the visiting Snow Badgers (13-16, 6-9) to a 67-63 victory over the North Idaho Cardinals (20-9, 9-6) in a Scenic West Athletic Conference regular-season finale.

Danika Lawson paced NIC with 11 points. The third-seeded Cardinals open SWAC tourney play on Friday at noon against Colorado Northwestern.