Missouri State holds off Gonzaga women for 65-64 win at Paradise Jam

ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands – With a little more than seven minutes remaining, the Gonzaga women’s basketball team was face-to-face with a 17-point deficit Thursday.

Somehow, the Zags fought back to tie the game at 64-64 with 13.8 seconds left.

Missouri State guard Lacy Stokes made a free throw with 4.4 seconds remaining and a running 13-foot jumper by Gonzaga’s Ines Bettencourt hit hard off the backboard as the Bears withstood the Zags’ furious rally 65-64 in the Paradise Jam.

“Overall I was pleased with our fight in the fourth quarter,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “We didn’t give up and we stuck together and made some big plays down the stretch.”

Gonzaga (4-3) never led, and the Zags didn’t seem to have any life trailing 59-42 after Kaemyn Bakemeier hit a jumper with 7:08 to go.

Needing several stops, Gonzaga’s defense sparked a comeback. And the Zags started making shots they had been missing most of the game.

Reigning West Coast Conference player of the year Yvonne Ejim stepped up. After only scoring four points on three shots in the first half, Ejim had 11 points of her game-high 21 in the final 5:03 and had two big assists. She missed two free throws in the final 2:33.

The Zags found some offense, using an 11-0 surge to pull with 59-53. The run was capped when freshman guard Allie Turner hit a shot off an assist from Ejim with 3:40 to go.

But a 3-pointer from Kyra Daniels stopped Gonzaga’s comeback momentarily, give Missouri State (4-1) a 62-53 lead with 3:27 remaining.

Ejim completed a three-point play and Bettencourt made a layup in transition to pull the Zags within 62-59 with 45 seconds left.

Stokes made two foul shots moments later to extend the Bears’ lead to 64-59.

Ejim made a nice baseline move, getting behind the Missouri State defense for a basket while being fouled. But she missed the free throw and the Bears led 64-61 and had the ball with a timeout with 21.5 seconds remaining. But Missouri State couldn’t inbound the ball and was called for a 5-second count violation.

Following a Gonzaga timeout, Turner hit a 24-foot jumper in front of the Zags’ bench, knotting the score at 64-all with 13.8 seconds left.

The Bears used a timeout to advance the ball near their bench. That’s when Stokes drove near the free-throw line and was fouled by Ejim, who was late trying to cut off the drive. Stokes missed the first shot but made the second with four seconds left, providing the winning margin.

Fortier said her team needs to learn to play through difficulty.

“Sometimes when you’re in these situations you’ve just got to play through contact, you have to play through adversity,” Fortier said. “Hopefully it’s going to pay off in the long run if we could do it a little bit earlier.”

Maud Huijbens led Gonzaga with 12 rebounds and added nine points. Turner had 13 points and four assists and Bettencourt finished with 12 points. In addition to her scoring, Ejim added seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.

In the first half, the Zags trailed 27-18 but took advantage of a Missouri State scoring drought to forge a 27-27 tie. Gonzaga had two opportunities to take its first lead before Stokes got a steal and a layup for a 29-27 Bears lead at halftime.

Gonzaga’s propensity for turnovers was a factor. The Zags finished with 18 and Missouri State turned the mistakes into 22 points.

Gonzaga plays the second of three games at the tournament on Friday when it meets Texas Tech. Tip for the game that can be seen on ESPN+ is at 5 p.m.

The Zags takes on Florida State in the final game Saturday.