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Gonzaga Women's Basketball

Ranked 20th in AP poll, Gonzaga women lead the nation in foul shooting

Gonzaga Bulldogs guard McKayla Williams (24) scores off the fast break against the Santa Clara Broncos in the second half at McCarthey Athletic Center on Sat. Jan. 7, 2023 in Spokane WA. (James Snook/For The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Allen For The Spokesman-Review

The Gonzaga women have seen this before, and it’s almost sure to happen again.

For the third time this season the Zags swept a weekend series, yet either dropped a spot in the subsequent Associated Press poll or were leapfrogged by Power 5 school.

This week, the Zags remained at 20th as Oregon fell from 18th to 21st while Baylor soared five spots, to 17th, after beating two ranked teams in Oklahoma and Kansas.

For good measure, GU dropped three spots, to 39th, in the NCAA’s NET rankings after beating two of the better teams in the West Coast Conference.

Gonzaga is 16-2 overall and 6-0 in the WCC going into a first-place showdown Saturday at Portland (12-5 overall, 6-0 in the WCC).

There was a consolation prize: Gonzaga is the best free throw-shooting team in the land.

After making 21 of 23 foul shots against USF and Santa Clara, the Zags moved ahead of Lehigh and Iowa State to the top of the chart.

As a team, the Zags have made 231 out of 286 free throws, a rate of 80.77%. Right behind are Lehigh (80%), ISU (79.83%) and Northern Colorado (79.6%).

Gonzaga’s Brynna Maxwell continues to top the national charts at the foul line; she is 51 for 52, for 98.08%, just ahead of Erin Houpt of Mercer (46 for 47, or 97.87%).

Maxwell had a tough weekend from long range, going 3 for 9, but she’s still No. 1. So far she’s hit 50 of 96 attempts, for 52.08%. Just behind is Jada Peebles of Illinois at 32 for 62, or 51.61%.

Defending NCAA champ South Carolina remained the No. 1 team for the 29th consecutive week, earning garnering all 28 votes from a national media panel.

The Gamecocks have been No. 1 for 29 consecutive weeks. They were followed in the poll by Stanford and Ohio State, which rallied to beat Illinois on Sunday.

LSU moved up two spots to fifth, just behind UConn. LSU (16-0) is off to the best start in school history, besting the mark held by the 2002-03 team that won its first 15 games.

South Carolina, Ohio State and LSU are the only remaining unbeaten teams in the country. Indiana, Notre Dame, UCLA, Maryland and Utah rounded out the top 10.