Zags overcome Tomlinson, fouls

Louella Tomlinson of Saint Mary’s broke both the Division I career and single-season record for blocked shots, but Courtney Vandersloot had 18 points, 11 assists and three blocks of her own to lead No. 22 Gonzaga to an 88-75 West Coast Conference basketball victory Thursday night at Moraga, Calif.

Tomlinson finished with 483 career and 165 season blocks.

Tomlinson finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for the Gaels (17-8, 8-2 in the West Coast Conference).

Katelan Redmond led Gonzaga (20-4, 9-0) with 20 points and Kayla Standish had 18 points. Tiffanie Shives added 13.

Leading by two at the half, Gonzaga then opened with an 11-0 run and the Gaels never got closer than seven again.

Shives played just nine minutes in the first half and had four fouls after just four minutes of the second. Heather Bowman, the Zags’ leading scorer, played only six minutes in the first half, and fouled out after just 14 minutes and seven points.

Eastern 71, Montana State 64: Junior forward Julie Piper scored 11 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead the Big Sky-leading Eagles to a win over the Bobcats in Bozeman.

Eastern (15-8, 8-2) survived a second-half surge by Montana State after taking a 38-29 halftime lead. The Bobcats (12-12, 5-6) went on an 8-0 run during the first five minutes of the second half, and took the lead at the 11:24 mark 43-40. Eastern finally regained the lead with 2:03 remaining on a Piper jumper.

Nicole Scott led Eastern with 13 points and added seven rebounds. Teammate Tatjana Sparavalo scored 12 off the bench in just 16 minutes of action.

Eastern faces second-place Montana on Saturday in Missoula at 6 p.m. In their first meeting this season, the Eagles won in overtime, 67-64, at Reese Court.