Gonzaga women roll past Utah, 89-71
As it turned out, statistics didn’t mean a lot when the Gonzaga women played Utah on Friday afternoon.
The Utes came into the opening game of the Rainbow Wahine Showdown as the second-leading scoring team in Division I, with a plus-20 rebounding average.
On the other side of the equation was Gonzaga senior Abby O’Connor, who came into the contest shooting 21%, including 0 for 10 from 3-point range.
On top of that, O’Connor had missed all six shots in the Zags’ narrow loss to No. 7 Stanford on Sunday.
Yet there O’Connor was, scoring a career-high 21 points to lead the Zags to an 89-71 win that wasn’t that close.
The Bulldogs led by as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter to improve to 4-1 going into Saturday’s game against Eastern Illinois.
The Zags also dominated on the boards, outrebounding Utah 43-21, and overcame 29 fouls that led to 42 Utah free-throw attempts.
Along the way, O’Connor made 9 of 11 shots, including three from beyond the arc.
“A lot of credit to my teammates for making the reads and giving me perfect passes,” O’Connor said. “They are the best and believe in me, so all credit to them for continuing to give me confidence.”
O’Connor set the tone in the first 3 minutes, hitting a 3-pointer and a layin to give GU a 9-2 lead.
“I think we did a really good job of coming out and throwing the first punch, which was an emphasis for us,” O’Connor said.
Apart from a Utah rally late in the second quarter, the lead only grew from there.
In their second consecutive game against a Pac-12 team, the Zags dominated the first quarter, leading 24-12 while shooting 50% from the field while holding the Utes to 36%.
Utah (4-1) shaved the lead to nine late in the half, which ended with GU ahead 40-29.
The Utes got within eight early in the third quarter, but a layup from Melody Kempton made it 48-37.
GU led by double digits the rest of the way, and went up by 21 on a layup by O’Connor at the end of the third quarter.
“I thought our team did a really good job starting each half … executing, finding each other and working really hard to find players and not settling for average shots,” coach Lisa Fortier said.
“I thought Abby did a really good job of letting the game come to her.”
Foul trouble
For the second game in a row, Gonzaga had an extraordinary day at the foul line. Five days after going 17 for 19 against Stanford, the Zags went 18 for 20.
Utah went to the line 42 times, making 30.
GU starting post Anamaria Virjoghe fouled out, as did backup guard Makayla Williams. Melody Kempton and Yvonne Ejim each had four fouls, forcing Fortier to give bigger minutes to backups Maud Huijbens and Eliza Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth responded with five points and a career-high seven boards.
“I like the way we overcame the fouls,” Fortier said.
Three other Zags finished in double figures. Kayleigh Truong scored 18, hitting 6 of 11 from the floor. Cierra Walker added 13 and Kempton 12.
Gonzaga shot 49.2% from the field (31 for 63).