No. 23 Gonzaga women use 15-0 start to beat Rice 80-72

After having a grind-it-out game two days earlier, the Gonzaga women’s basketball team never gave Rice a chance Saturday afternoon.

The No. 23-ranked Bulldogs got out to a 15-0 start and rarely slowed down in an 80-72 nonconference win at Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston.

Sparking Gonzaga’s start was graduate forward Eliza Hollingsworth, who shook off a 1-of-11 shooting output at California by not missing a shot in the first half.

Hollingsworth had 21 points in the opening two quarters on 7-of-7 shooting from the field and 4 of 4 from 3-point range. She didn’t score again, but by then it didn’t matter.

“Mentality had a huge factor,” said Hollingsworth, who also had six rebounds. “I was proud of how I was able to move on from the last game and approach the next one with a clear head and confidence.”

As a team, the Zags had a better start than Thursday.

“Our team came out ready to go,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “We’ve been challenging them that we want to start games, start quarters, start halves really well. If you start out and have to climb your way back into it – which we’ve done a time or two – it’s much more difficult.”

Gonzaga (10-2) got out into transition well, especially in the first half.

“We had great pace, the best pace I’ve seen this year with how we were getting into our offense, getting to our shots,” Fortier said. “(Kaylynne Truong) took the point and she started pushing it from the get go. In the second half, the same thing. ‘Lynne’ was back in after sitting out with the bloody nose for a long time.”

Kaylynne Truong sat out 17:24 of the first half after she took an elbow to the nose. She came back in the second to provide a boost.

“It felt good coming back in the second half,” Kaylynne said. “I was ready to hit the court with my teammates again.”

Kayleigh Truong hit a jumper that capped a 13-2 start to the second quarter that gave the Zags a 40-19 lead.

Moments later, Calli Stokes hit a driving basket to give Gonzaga its biggest lead of the game at 42-21.

Rice (5-4) used an 8-2 spurt to close the first half, cutting Gonzaga’s lead to 47-33.

The Owls got within seven points late in the third quarter, but the Zags built the lead back to double digits until the end.

“We didn’t stop them (in the second half) like we did in the first half,” Fortier said. “We lost focus somewhere in the middle of the second quarter of forcing them to their weak hand. We started leaving our feet a little too much and letting them get to their strong hand too much and we were communicating as well. That caused us some problems and let them into the game.”

Yvonne Ejim had her fourth double-double for the Zags, finishing with 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Kaylynne Truong finished with 15 points and four assists, and Kayleigh Truong had five assists. Calli Stokes added six rebounds off the bench.

The Zags play two of their final three nonconference games at home, finishing before the Christmas break. The one road game is Dec. 20 against Arizona in Phoenix.

Gonzaga returns to action Dec. 17 at home against South Dakota State (5-3). Tip is at 2 p.m.