Gonzaga women drop fourth straight with 74-72 OT loss at Colorado State
Progress was made Sunday afternoon even if the Gonzaga women’s basketball team lost for a fourth straight time.
After playing one of their better halves to open the game, though, the Bulldogs finished with a rough final two quarters, and the Colorado State Rams took advantage.
The Rams fought back from a 20-point halftime deficit to knock off Gonzaga 74-72 in overtime in a nonconference game at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Brooke Carlson made a driving layup with 2.6 seconds left in overtime. After a timeout, Gonzaga freshman Allie Turner’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer fell short.
The Bulldogs fell to 4-6.
Carlson made a layup to give the Rams (7-3) their first lead with 33 seconds to go in regulation.
Gonzaga’s Esther Little got a steal with seven seconds remaining to give the Zags a final possession. Yvonne Ejim tried to drive around her defender but was fouled, sending her to the free-throw line with one second left.
Ejim missed the first shot but made the second to force overtime.
The Zags led just once in overtime at 68-66 when Ejim made two free throws at the 4:46 mark.
“I’m really proud of the way our team fought back to get ourselves to overtime,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “They had all the momentum. When the momentum shifted we could have just let them take the game in regulation. We got tough when we needed to get ourselves to overtime.”
The Zags shot well in the first half, making 57.1%. They led 43-23 going into the break.
It appeared Gonzaga would lead 38-23 at halftime. But Ejim was fouled at midcourt attempting a shot. Colorado State’s coach was called for a technical foul moments later.
Ejim made her three foul shots and Turner made the technical shots for the 43-23 lead.
“The first half we showed the team we’re going to be going forward,” Fortier said. “We played clean offense, we shared the ball and we do have some players who are stars but we’re at our best when we’re sharing the ball and looking for the next best open shot.”
The second -half struggles looked too familiar for the Zags. GU’s errors were made more glaring and difficult to overcome when the other team wasn’t making them. Gonzaga finished with 16 turnovers. That was below its season average (18.8). The Rams, ranked third in the nation for fewest turnovers per game (9.4), had just three turnovers.
CSU cut Gonzaga’s lead to five points in the third quarter. The Zags made just 2 of 13 shots from the field in the period and 7 of 27 the final two quarters (26%).
Ejim reached double-figure scoring for a 53rd straight game. She led with 22 points and five rebounds. Maud Huijbens had a double-double by halftime and finished with a career-high 19 rebounds to go with 15 points. Turner had 18 points and a career-high nine assists.
Gonzaga outrebounded the Rams 49-30.
“It was a tale of two halves unfortunately,” Fortier said. “As good as we were in the first, they were that good in the second half. Back to the drawing board for us. We saw a lot of things that are promising and some things that we can build on going forward.”
Gonzaga returns to McCarthey Athletic Center for the first time since Nov. 21 when Eastern Washington visits on Saturday. Tipoff is 2 p.m.
“A couple of the calls didn’t go our way and some of the defensive (things) we have to shore up,” Fortier said. “We just have to reevaluate what we’re trying to do defensively.”