Late run helps Gonzaga women beat Rice 72-69

Gonzaga owned the final 2 minutes and 43 seconds Thursday.

The Zags women’s basketball team hunkered down, and sophomore guard Claire O’Connor capped a career performance with a critical 3-pointer that sparked a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter.

By the time Rice made a basket – a 3-pointer with one-tenth of a second remaining – the Zags had the game in hand, holding off the athletic Owls 72-69 in a nonconference game in front of a crowd of 4,876 at McCarthey Athletic Center.

“They picked a good time to get some stops,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “We had our hands full all night. They’re a veteran group.”

Rice (4-2) returned four starters off a team that won the American Athletic Conference a season ago. The Zags beat the Owls 80-72 in Houston last year.

All’s not whole for Gonzaga, but there are significant signs that the Zags are improving.

Gonzaga (3-2) trailed 64-61 when Sussy Ngulafac muscled down low for a basket with 3:24 remaining.

McKynnlie Dalan hit a baseline jumper off an assist from Yvonne Ejim to pull the Zags within 64-63 and start a 10-0 run.

Rice missed its next six shots. O’Connor, who scored 35 points all of last season, hit a 3-pointer with 1:26 to go off a feed from the baseline from Ines Bettencourt, putting Gonzaga ahead to stay at 67-64. It was the 10th 3-pointer, giving the fans tacos, and it was O’Connor’s fourth 3-pointer in seven tries. She had a double-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and two assists.

Fortier was hoping the Zags would get off to a better start than they have so far. O’Connor was ready, making her first three shots, including two 3-pointers. Freshman Allie Turner also hit her first two 3s.

“She (O’Connor) had a great game,” Fortier said. “She had eight rebounds in the first half – not even talking about the shotmaking. She had four offensive boards and four defensive boards. Our team needed it.”

Gonzaga built as much as a seven-point lead in the first quarter, but the Owls fought back to make it a back-and-forth game until the end. There were 12 lead changes and the score was tied eight times.

“Our team buckled down when at the time we needed to,” Fortier said. “We just got tough. Ines was physical, Claire did some good things, Allie had a block in that time … and we got defensive rebounds That’s the part of defense that people forget sometimes. … A lot of people stepped up at that time.”

Ejim had her 28th double-double, leading the Zags with 20 points to go with 11 rebounds. Turner added 12 points.

“At one point, we started going to Yvonne and that’s going to happen at some point throughout the game, but we’re much better as a team if you have a lot of people you can throw the ball to,” Fortier said.

Ejim said O’Connor’s performance wasn’t unexpected.

“What we’ve been emphasizing in practice and especially in our pregame she took that to heart,” Ejim said of O’Connor. “She put the towel down and said I’m just going to go do it. … The aggressiveness and the assertiveness that came out from (her) this game was phenomenal.”

Fortier praised her team for its effort in the final quarter.

“It’s a good way to grow,” Fortier said. “You have to have trial and error. We shot it better (in the fourth quarter) and it was our best defensive quarter.”

Gonzaga hits the road beginning with a game Sunday in The Pit at New Mexico (3-2) of the Mountain West Conference.

The Zags will head to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, for three games over Thanksgiving.

The Zags’ next home game is Dec. 14 against Eastern Washington.