GU women advance

SAN DIEGO – This wasn’t your typical No. 1 seed vs. No. 8 in a conference tournament opener. The top-seeded Gonzaga women’s basketball team defeated Pepperdine twice during the regular season, but neither was easy.

So it was hardly a surprise that Thursday’s meeting in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament was a battle from the outset. Nor was it surprising that sophomore forward Heather Bowman, the WCC player of the year, poured in 26 points and had plenty of help from her teammates to spark the Bulldogs’ 77-67 victory over the eighth-seeded Waves at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

“Maybe (the best thing) was that it was a tough win, that it wasn’t a blowout to where we feel too comfortable,” Bowman said. “It was a grind-it-out win. We had to work hard and we’ll just continue to do that.”

Gonzaga (23-7), which has won seven straight, moves into the semifinals at approximately 2 p.m. Saturday against No. 5 seed Saint Mary’s, a 71-67 winner over No. 4 Loyola Marymount. No. 2 Santa Clara, which defeated No. 7 San Francisco 89-84, will play No. 3 San Diego, a 61-57 victor over No. 6 Portland, in the other semifinal.

The Bulldogs advanced with a gritty, determined effort. They led nearly the whole way and seemed poised to break it open several times, but the Waves, who won their last four games, mounted numerous comebacks.

“That might be the best eight seed in the history of our conference,” Bulldogs coach Kelly Graves said. “They’re talented and once they got healthy down the stretch they played like they’re capable of. It was a gut-it-out kind of game for us. They didn’t allow us to get up and down the court like we want to, so we played at their tempo a lot and it was a physical game.

“Down the stretch we made the key stops and more importantly we made the free throws. We’re moving on.”

Gonzaga saw a 15-point lead dissolve to four with 2:09 left, but Bowman, who was 9 of 9 at the foul line in the second half, connected on two free throws and Jami Bjorklund drove the baseline for a layup. The Waves (10-18) answered with Miranda Ayim’s two free throws and a steal and layup by Katie Menton on GU’s inbounds pass.

But the Bulldogs didn’t flinch and they knocked down 9 of 10 free throws in the final 55.3 seconds to seal the win. Tiffanie Shives, who made several key field goals in the second half, went 6 of 6 at the stripe and Vivian Frieson was 3 of 4.

Bowman scored just three points in the first 15 minutes, but she struck for six points late in the half, helping the Bulldogs take a 31-22 lead. She had 17 points in the second half, including back-to-back baskets, the latter a three-point play that boosted GU’s lead to 39-28. Another four-point Bowman flurry and Shives’ 3-pointer from the top of the key gave the Bulldogs their largest lead (53-38) with 12:18 left.

“She’s had some games where she has two or three points at half and ends up with 22 or 24,” Graves said of Bowman. “You never worry. She’s a good player and good players find a way.”

Shives finished with 16 points, 14 in the second half.

“That’s kind of been our strength all year,” Graves said. “(Michelle) Elliott might have a big game one night and Jami the next. We have Steady Eddie (Bowman) over here, but we always need that other scorer to step up and today it was Tiffanie.”

Frieson chipped in 12 points and 11 rebounds and three blocks – her first career double-double. Bowman added 10 boards as the Zags outrebounded the Waves 41-37.

Pepperdine senior guard Daphanie Kennedy, an All-WCC selection and the conference’s leading scorer, heated up in the second half to finish with 20 points, but she made just 7 of 19 shots and 1 of 5 3-pointers.

“They’re a well-oiled machine right now and they’re playing extremely well,” Waves coach Julie Rousseau said of Gonzaga