Gonzaga women regroup from BYU collapse, turn attention to Monday’s meeting with San Francisco

Moments after one of the most disappointing losses of her career, Gonzaga women’s Coach Lisa Fortier was looking ahead to the next game.

There was no choice.

The Zags had just blown a 15-point lead and eventually the game Saturday afternoon against Brigham Young. They still owned a piece of first place in the West Coast Conference, but they also had to pick up the pieces in a hurry because there’s another game.

On Monday night, the Zags host San Francisco in a game that was originally scheduled for Dec. 30 but postponed by COVID-19 protocols.

It will be GU’s third game in five days; that’s hard enough, but the Zags also must try to erase the memory of Saturday’s second-half meltdown.

“How do you flush this?” Fortier said in the postgame presser. “I hope I come up with something smart between now and then.”

“But we all have had hangovers, and they can bite you,” Fortier said. “That will be part of the message.”

Saturday’s defeat not only cost the Zags a chance at their best quality win to date, but also left them with almost no margin for error in earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Gonzaga is 17-5 overall and 8-1 in the WCC but is firmly on the tournament bubble after dropping three spots to 28th in the NCAAs NET rankings.

A loss to USF (119th in NET) – or any other WCC team not named BYU – would probably force the Zags to win the WCC tournament to reach March Madness.

The Dons are a modest 12-11 overall and 6-5 in the WCC but have won six of their last seven games.

USF is coming off a home sweep of San Diego and Pepperdine, winning both games comfortably. In Saturday’s 78-57 win over the Waves, sophomore guard Ioanna Krimili scored 25 points to reach the 1,000-point mark.

“She’s one of the most athletic players in the conference,” Fortier said of Krimili, a 5-foot-10 guard who averages 17.3 points a game and 4.3 rebounds.

Rebounding figures to be a point of emphasis for the Zags, who came into the BYU game as one of the top teams in the country but were outplayed on the boards in the second half against BYU

Gonzaga has won the last 10 meetings with the Dons and not lost at home since 2006.

Gonzaga is back on the road this week, Thursday night at Santa Clara and Saturday for the rematch with USF.