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Gonzaga Women's Basketball

Gonzaga women shut down Pacific 91-59 in WCC opener

Gonzaga alumni chaplain Steven Hess, SJ, passes out Go Zags signs to Zag fans at The Orleans Hotel before the womens team plays Pacific in a WCC Tournament quarterfinal basketball game, Fri., March 3, 2017, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Gonzaga alumni chaplain Steven Hess, SJ, passes out Go Zags signs to Zag fans at The Orleans Hotel before the womens team plays Pacific in a WCC Tournament quarterfinal basketball game, Fri., March 3, 2017, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Whitney Ogden whitneyo@spokesman.com(509) 481-1067

LAS VEGAS – The Gonzaga women ran out on the Orleans Arena court Friday afternoon with a few chips on their shoulders.

For one, the Zags were not going to let this opening matchup slip through their fingers like it did in last year’s West Coast Conference tournament, when the Zags fell to Santa Clara. They definitely weren’t going to let No. 9 Pacific be the team to dish up another disappointing postseason for the Zags, especially after falling to the Tigers near the start of conference play.

But apparently the Zags had one more thing to prove before they wrapped up a 91-59 stomping of the Tigers in front of an arena full of mostly Gonzaga fans: Their bigs are strong and the post is deep.

“The post dominated for sure in this game,” said sophomore forward Jill Barta, who put up a game-high 23 points for the Zags.

This time, it wasn’t just Barta and fellow starting big Kiara Kudron stealing the show. They had some help from their subs.

Sophomore forward Zykera Rice and junior center Emma Wolfram followed Barta with 11 points apiece. Wolfram was one rebound shy of a double-double, while Rice pulled down four boards.

“What (Wolfram) does better than anything is defend and what Zykera does better than anything is rebound, and so when we get those guys scoring baskets and doing the other things that they’re very strong at – very difficult to stop,” GU coach Lisa Fortier said.

Especially when they’re needed by their team. And the post’s depth was needed, particularly in the first half when the Zags had trouble getting a running start over the Tigers.

The Zags struggled to get on the board and fell behind Pacific for almost 4 minutes. With the help of senior guard Elle Tinkle’s six straight points, including a couple of makes at the line, the Zags were able to get back on top. The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 15-7 with 2:47 left in the first quarter, but the Tigers went on an 8-0 run to tie the score at 15 in the first minute of the second quarter.

“We were kind of not getting the ball inside and that was definitely not in the game plan. We wanted to go in there. We have a size advantage inside,” Fortier said. “The second quarter we wanted to continue to push the ball.”

Rice brought the push.

The sophomore forward checked in for Barta and immediately got the Zags back on track. She scored six points in 2 minutes that gave the Bulldogs a five-point lead. Gonzaga went on a 13-0 run for a 32-18 lead and never looked back.

The Zags dominated Pacific in almost every statistical category, with the exception of 3-point makes – Pacific shot 32 percent from 3-point range, while Gonzaga hit 5 of 21 3-point attempts.

But the Zags made up for the missed long shots. They shot 47.7 percent from the field (31 of 65), while Pacific had 21 makes out of 60 field-goal attempts The Bulldogs made 92.3 percent of their shots at the line, hitting 24 of 26 attempts, while Pacific shot 10 of 16 from the line.

Gonzaga’s height gave the Bulldogs their the biggest advantage on the glass – the Zags outrebounded Pacific 49-28. The bigs combined for 29 boards, with Kudron leading the pack with 11 rebounds.

Tinkle followed with 10 points and seven boards. Redshirt senior Makenlee Williams scored nine points for the Zags – all on 3-pointers.

Gonzaga faces San Francisco in the semifinals at noon on Monday.