Gonzaga women fade in fourth quarter, lose 69-66 in major upset to UC Davis

UC Davis raised its game in the second half Sunday afternoon and the Gonzaga women couldn’t respond.

The result was a surprising 69-66 nonconference defeat in a game the Zags twice led by 15 points, the last time with two minutes left in the third quarter.

However, UC Davis held the visiting Zags without a field goal in the last 8½ minutes to pull a major upset.

Though unranked in The Associated Press poll, the Zags came into the game 28th in the NCAA’s NET rankings; Davis was 124th and coming off a 26-point loss at Stanford, a team GU took to the limit three weeks ago in Spokane.

The loss was the second in three outings for Gonzaga, which had lost only four regular-season nonconference games in the last three years.

The Zags are 8-3 going into Tuesday’s night’s contest at Eastern Washington.

Gonzaga led 40-25 at halftime and 58-43 with two minutes left in the third quarter, but made just one of 14 shots in the final quarter while Davis made six of nine.

“It hard to win games when you shoot 7% in any quarter,” GU Coach Lisa Fortier said. “But the difference between our offensive quarter being 7% and their offensive quarter being 63% in the fourth, was a huge impact on the game.”

Gonzaga still led 62-52 with 8 minutes to play, but the Aggies (6-4) dominated down the stretch.

UC Davis took the lead for good, 65-64, on a 3-pointer by Evanne Davis with 3 minutes, 14 seconds left.

Gonzaga still had a chance at the end, trailing 69-66 after Melody Kempton hit two foul shots with 5 seconds left and Yvonne Ejim forced a held ball with the possession arrow pointing Gonzaga’s way.

However, Kaylynne Truong missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“They were able to get momentum when we weren’t getting stops, and that affected our offense as well,” Fortier said.

Senior forward Melody Kempton led the Zags with 14 points, 6 rebounds and a 6-for-6 effort from the line.

Ejim had 12 points while Kaylynne Truong had 11 points; however, she missed her last seven shots.

Kayleigh Truong, still not fully recovered from a knee injury suffered 3 weeks ago, had 9 points and 4 assists.

Gonzaga outrebounded the Aggies 34-23 for the game, but were outboarded 17-12 in the second half.

Both teams got off to hot starts, each making 5 of their first 6 shots.

GU led 21-17 after the first quarter after making 8 of its first 14 shots and both 3-point attempts.

Gonzaga was without freshman guard Bree Salenbien, who stayed in Spokane with an undisclosed illness.