Women’s basketball: Gonzaga, Washington State lead midseason logjam atop WCC

Significant movement took place in the logjam at the top of the West Coast Conference women’s basketball standings last weekend.
A week ago six teams were knotted at the top of the WCC. A week later just two remained deadlocked – Gonzaga and Washington State.
Both teams swept a pair of games last week to gain a little separation.
The WCC reaches the halfpoint this week. And it’s shaping up to be a wild finish in the chase for first and second.
Out of its remaining 11 games, Gonzaga has six at home including return games with San Francisco, which beat the Zags in a league opener, and Washington State.
The most difficult road test will be at Oregon State, which rallied from a 12-point deficit with three minutes remaining in regulation before beating Gonzaga in overtime.
Gonzaga has four games left with two teams it has yet to play – Saint Mary’s and Pacific.
With six teams proving they can beat anybody anywhere, securing one of the two byes into the WCC tournament semifinals appears to be critical. Having to play three games in a row to earn an NCAA Tournament berth may be asking too much in a league layered in parity.
Here are the standings going into play this week: Gonzaga (12-8, 7-2), WSU (12-8, 7-2), Saint Mary’s (10-7, 6-2), Portland (17-3, 6-3), Oregon State (9-10, 5-3), Pacific (9-10, 5-4), San Francisco (8-10, 5-4), Santa Clara (9-11, 3-7), Pepperdine (7-9, 2-5), Loyola Marymount (6-9, 0-7) and San Diego (4-12, 0-7).
Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said her team, which was the preseason pick to win the WCC, set a goal of taking the conference.
“We haven’t talked about it a single time. It’s one of those goals that we set at the beginning of the year,” Fortier said. “Then somewhere in the middle of our nonconference we shifted our attitude to (just) getting better because the way that the conference is set up, there’s a lot of conference left. So being at the top now is one thing. We want to be at the top at the end.”
Fortier further explained her thoughts.
“You lose sight of that if you don’t focus on every day of practice and every game,” Fortier said. “It is a goal we have every year and we will continue to have every year. And as you add in quality teams (WSU and Oregon State), it’s just going to keep getting harder. And everybody gives us their best.”
So the Zags may have a little wiggle room, but not enough to take any team lightly.
“We just have to focus on how we’re going to get better tomorrow so we’re a better team (when we play again),” Fortier said.
Looking ahead
It’s a light week for Gonzaga, which is off until Saturday when it travels to Pepperdine in fire-torn Malibu, California.
WSU has two games, beginning with its first test against defending WCC tournament champ Portland in Pullman on Thursday. Tip is at 6 p.m.
The Cougars go to Loyola Marymount on Saturday.
WSU bounced back last week after falling to Gonzaga at home with wins at San Francisco (74-58) and Santa Clara (74-47). The Cougs curiously fell to Santa Clara 68-62 two weeks ago.
Two days after dropping a 66-65 heartbreaker at Gonzaga, Portland pounded Oregon State 86-61 on the road.
So Thursday’s showdown in Pullman is critical. A WSU victory keeps the Cougs firmly in the chase for the league title. A Portland win keeps the Pilots alive for one of the two byes although they lose a tiebreaker with two losses to Gonzaga.
If the first half of league play is an indicator, four losses or fewer probably means a team earns one of the top two places.
The game at Pullman affords Pilots senior wing Maisie Burnham, a Liberty High graduate, another game close to home.
In Burnham’s last game at Gonzaga last week, she had a team-high 20 points, three rebounds and three steals before fouling out.
Fortier enjoys watching former area players have good games most of the time.
“I never wanted them to have a good performance against us,” Fortier said. “I don’t want anyone to do that, but she’s a great player and she’s a great person. I went to school with her Dad (Blaze) here at Gonzaga for some of my (doctorate). She has a good family and you want to see (her) succeed at the next level. I’m glad she got to play in front of this kind of environment (McCarthey Athletic Center) multiple times. Our crowd was very supportive of her … she’s tough. I’m not going to be sad to not have to game plan for her because she can do most everything out there on the court.”
Burnham ranks second in scoring in the WCC at 16.8 points – four per game behind Gonzaga graduate forward Yvonne Ejim (20.8).
Around the Big Sky
Eastern Washington (6-12, 2-4) is trailing the league leaders, but the good news is the Eagles are making progress.
It was evident in a 58-56 loss to Big Sky-leading Montana State at Reese Court on Monday.
Idaho (13-4, 5-1) remains in contention after beating visiting EWU on Saturday and handling Montana on Monday.
The Vandals trail Montana State (17-2, 7-0) and Northern Arizona (14-5, 5-1).
EWU travels to Northern Arizona on Thursday and Northern Colorado on Saturday.
Dons have slipped
There’s a reason San Francisco has gone from undefeated atop the WCC to losers of four straight. The Dons lost senior forward Debora dos Santos to a season-ending knee injury. She scored 15 points and had eight rebounds in a league-opening win against Gonzaga.
Weekly honors
Gonzaga graduate forward Yvonne Ejim was one of five players named as an Ann Meyers Drysdale national player of the week by the USBWA.
Ejim had a career-high 35 points on 12-of-16 shooting and 13 rebounds in the Zags’ win at Loyola Marymount on Saturday. She also got a key rebound and putback to lift Gonzaga past Portland on Thursday.
Ejim, who also earned the honor a season ago, became Gonzaga’s all-time leader in field goals made and rebounds last week as well.
• For the third time this season, Ejim and freshman point guard Allie Turner have won WCC weekly honors.
Ejim was named Player of the Week, the third time this season and 12th time in her career, and Turner was named Freshman of the Week five times including the last two weeks.
Turner scored a career-high 23 points, nine rebounds, four assists and just one turnover against LMU. She has scored 20 or more points four times this season. The last freshman to reach 20 was Courtney Vandersloot.
Turner leads all freshmen in the nation with 57 3-pointers made and ranks eighth overall.