Gonzaga women withstand Sydney Ward’s 30 points to beat Pacific 85-70

It took Gonzaga a few moments to shake Pacific, but in the end, offensive balance nullified a career game for one Tiger.

Pacific’s 6-foot guard Sydney Ward scored a career-high 30 points, keeping the Tigers within eyeshot of the Zags. But seven players scored seven points or more to propel the Bulldogs to an 85-70 victory in a West Coast Conference women’s basketball game Saturday afternoon at the Spanos Center in Stockton, California.

“I really liked how we responded to their first quarter,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “(Pacific) came out really dialed in, and Sydney Ward (played) like it was Senior Day. It took Ines (Bettencourt) to finally stop Ward from drawing fouls. (Ward) pinned a lot of fouls on our post players.”

Gonzaga committed what has become characteristic careless turnovers, allowing Pacific to hang around longer than it should have, but the Tigers couldn’t cut the deficit to single digits.

The Zags used a 10-5 finish to hold off the Tigers and remain tied with Loyola Marymount atop the conference.

“We had zero turnovers in the third, which allowed us to be on pace for 100 points,” Fortier said. “It just continues to show that if when we take care of the basketball we’re really hard to stop.”

It was Gonzaga’s 21st straight win over Pacific. The Zags improved to 21-8 overall, 13-3 in the WCC.

Two more wins by Gonzaga to close out the regular season this week will secure no worse than a triple-bye into the WCC Tournament semifinals. And two more victories may lock up a final WCC regular-season championship, too, before the Zags leave for the new-fangled Pac-12 Conference next year.

Spectacular freshman forward Lauren Whittaker was her ever-dominating self, posting her record 15th double-double. She had a team-high 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 8 of 11 from the free-throw line to go with 11 rebounds and two steals.

The Zags shot well from the free-throw line (25 of 28). They were in the bonus early in the third period, making 12 of 13 as they started to increase their lead.

Whittaker made a free throw that gave Gonzaga its biggest lead at 66-47 late in the third.

Gonzaga’s lone senior, Bettencourt, who played like it was her personal Senior Day, finishing with 13 points, seven assists, five steals and three rebounds.

“Ines is playing like a senior – like it matters,” Fortier said. “She was everywhere. She played a lot of minutes for us today.”

Sophomore guard Allie Turner added 12 points, two assists and two steals. Freshman forward Jaiden Haile, who should find herself on the WCC All-Freshman Team, had 10 points and five rebounds.

The Zags handled a 28th opponent on the boards (39-22). Gonzaga had 15 offensive rebounds.

“Rebounding was a good effort,” Fortier said. “The paint was a huge point of offensive for us and we scored well in the paint (40 points), which mattered for us.”

Gonzaga returns home for Senior Night on Thursday, facing Saint Mary’s for the first and only time in the regular-season under the WCC’s unbalanced schedule. The Zags close out conference play Saturday at Portland.

The Zags got some help from Pepperdine, which handled Santa Clara 80-63. Gonzaga must avoid finishing tied with Santa Clara (21-8, 11-5), which beat the Bulldogs in their lone WCC matchup.

Oregon State (20-9, 12-4) remains a half game behind Gonzaga after handling Washington State 79-51.