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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

WSU women rally in second half to knock off Gonzaga

In a game that seemed like a cross between a street fight and a NCAA tournament game, the Washington State Cougars women’s basketball team came from behind to beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs 59-58 at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Tuesday night.

Gonzaga’s stifling defense held All-Pac-12 guards Tia Presley and Lia Galdeira in check in the first half, but coach June Daugherty dialed up the pressure in the second half that gave Presley opportunities to score 18 of her 21 points en route to the huge win.

“To me, it was like a tournament game,” Daugherty said. “Both teams were slugging it out. We were down and had to fight our way back. It will help us down the road in the Pac-12 and hopefully in the postseason.”

Presley, a former Gonzaga Prep star, led all scorers and center Shalie Dheensaw scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Cougars (7-2).

However, the defense of Gonzaga (5-3), led by Elle Tinkle, held Galdeira to only nine points, which were 11 below her average.

“Our game plan was to limit Galdeira and Presley and I thought we did a good job,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “We just needed to regain our composure.”

Presley gave the Cougars their first lead of the game 57-56 with 35 seconds left when she hit a layup. Gonzaga’s Keani Albanez then missed a 3-pointer 10 seconds later, but Sunny Greinacher got the rebound.

Albanez put up another 3-pointer that hit with 18 seconds to go, but Fortier had called time out just before the shot and it was waved off.

“Of course, we would have wanted to have that one back,” Fortier said.

Daugherty said WSU was fortunate to get that call.

“You feel awful for the kid who makes the shot,” Daugherty said. “Sometimes you are on the good end of that, and sometimes not.”

Galdeira made two free throws with 6.9 seconds left and Gonzaga had one more shot to tie. Albanez couldn’t get free for a 3-pointer and instead drove the lane for a layup at the buzzer for the final score of 59-58.

Fortier said the staff had drawn up a 3-point shot and she wasn’t sure why Albanez instead drove the lane.

But she said the game was lost primarily at the beginning of the second half after Gonzaga went into halftime leading 30-20.

Daugherty’s team came out in a full-court press and whittled Gonzaga’s lead down to three points in under two minutes.

“We just let them have some momentum and then we had three or four empty possessions,” Fortier said. “The momentum switched. They picked it up a notch and we sort of got on our heels.”

Greinacher led Gonzaga with 18 points. Albanez had 14 and Tinkle scored 13. Center Shelby Cheslek had five points and 11 rebounds.

After the game, Presley took photographs with some of the 40 people she provided tickets for before the game that was played before 5,363 fans.

“That was a thriller,” Presley said. “In the first half, I was frustrated. But somehow I found a way to make a couple shots drop. We found a way.”