Gonzaga women focus on building momentum in final two home games

With the West Coast Conference Tournament on the horizon, the Gonzaga women have a lot to play for and a lot of reasons to take care of business.

Going into Thursday night’s home game against Pepperdine, the Zags are still in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament berth and a slice of the WCC regular-season title.

Mostly, they just want to go into Las Vegas with some momentum.

The subject came up Monday afternoon, late in the Zags’ emphatic home win over Santa Clara.

“We talked in the fourth quarter about continuing to get better,” GU forward Yvonne Ejim said after a 74-58 win that wasn’t nearly that close.

Evidenced by their four-year record of 62-6 in the WCC, the Zags are good at beating the teams they’re supposed to beat.

There’s also a lot to lose should they stumble on Thursday, or in Saturday’s finale against Loyola Marymount.

The Zags are 22-6 overall and 13-2 in the WCC, ranked 29th in the NCAA’s NET rankings and projected as a No. 12 seed in the latest edition of Charlie Crème’s bracket at ESPN.com.

Even more intriguing, Crème has GU facing Miami in a First Four contest; win that and the Zags would face Oregon and former Zags coach Kelly Graves.

That’s a long way off, and the brackets will probably change dramatically before Selection Sunday on March 13.

In the meantime, the Zags need to take care of Pepperdine. The Waves are 8-14 overall and sitting in eighth place in the WCC at 4-9.

Pepperdine has dropped five of its past six games and is coming off a 74-66 home loss to San Francisco.

In the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 27 in Malibu, California, the Zags coasted to a 66-54 win. GU led by 22 points going into the fourth quarter.

The Waves are led by freshman guard Ally Stedman, who averages 13.5 points.