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Gonzaga University Athletics

Officially NCAA bound: Gonzaga women beat 15th-ranked BYU for WCC championship

LAS VEGAS – As the Gonzaga women prepared for Tuesday’s West Coast Conference Tournament title game, coach Lisa Fortier had a few doubts about the game plan.

“It was the same plan we’d used before,” Fortier said. “So I asked the coaches, ‘Are we not changing anything?’ ”

Who could blame her? After all, the Zags had lost both regular-season meetings to BYU, the second by 24 points.

“We just had to do it a lot better,” Fortier said.

And they did. Patient with the ball and almost ferocious on defense, the Zags kept 15th-ranked BYU off-balance all afternoon and won the title 71-59 at the Orleans Arena.

The Zags came out strongly, withstood rallies big and small and kept their poise in the second half – something that didn’t happen in the two regular-season games.

After holding it together for 40 minutes, they lost it completely after the final buzzer. They were hugging, screaming and dancing, with more of the latter now a sure thing next week.

The story line going into the tournament was that GU needed to win at least one game in Vegas to get off the NCAA Tournament bubble.

That was accomplished on Monday, when the Zags outlasted USF in the semifinals. The win over BYU not only makes the Zags an automatic qualifier, but makes them a good bet to move up a few notches on Selection Sunday.

Fortier fielded a lot of questions in the postgame news conference, but had no answer when asked what seed her team deserves.

“I can say I’ve looked at bracketology exactly zero times this year,” Fortier said.

Sitting nearby, players Melody Kempton and Kayleigh Truong admitted to taking a few peaks.

“But it’s not very helpful, and it’s better to focus on what we can control,” Kempton said.

From the outset, the Zags focused on controlling the paint. They clogged the middle and finished with six blocks. That forced BYU to rely on its outside shooting, but the Cougars made just 32% (21 for 65) from the field and 22% (5 for 23) from long range.

“It’s hard playing a team three times and try to beat them,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. “You have to give them credit. They were really aggressive.”

The Zags (26-6) got a big boost in transition, scoring 14 points on the break. Balanced as usual, GU had four players in double figures, but with no one higher than Kempton’s 15 points.

For the game, GU shot almost 50% (24 for 49) and outrebounded the Cougars 37-33. Abby O’Connor led the way with 10 boards.

The Zags seized the momentum after BYU took a 2-0 lead. Up 16-12 after the first quarter, GU pulled ahead 29-21 at halftime.

That’s when Fortier reminded her players that they’d blown a 15-point halftime lead against BYU last month in the Kennel.

Properly inspired, the Zags built the lead to 12 late in the third quarter.

Sure enough, the Cougars rallied, but not until early in the fourth. The lead was down to 46-43 with 8 minutes left, but Kempton hit back-to-back shots to push the advantage to seven.

Six minutes later, the Zags were up 60-48 and the celebration began.

“I’m just so proud of our team, after they cut it to three” Fortier said. “That’s just very telling.”

Kaylynne and Kayleigh Truong scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, for GU and Yvonne Ejim added 11.

Shaylee Gonzales, the WCC Player of the Year, scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for BYU (26-3), which had its eight-game winning streak snapped.

Paisley Harding added 14 points and Lauren Gustin 10.