Paced by Allie Turner, Gonzaga women are putting on a 3-point shooting clinic | Notebook
When the NCAA updated its Division I women’s basketball statistics Monday morning, there was Gonzaga ranked first in percentage of 3-pointers made.
Rounded up, Gonzaga is shooting 41% from long range. The Zags used a 12-of-25 effort against San Diego on Saturday to vault past defending national champ UConn, which at the time was second (40.62).
UConn remained second Monday after making just 6 of 24 3-pointers (25%) in an 87-45 win over Notre Dame. The Huskies’ percentage dropped to 40.
Ten of 12 Zags have made 3-pointers. Eight made at least one against San Diego and five have made 10 or more on the season.
Gonzaga is confident with any one shooting behind the arc, but seven have been particularly accurate. Sophomore guard Allie Turner, who set a single-season record last year with 105, is at the head of the pack again. She’s made 54 of 116 (46.6%).
Mead graduate and Boise State transfer Teryn Gardner, a sophomore guard, is shooting a team-best 50%, making 31 of 62. Next is redshirt freshman forward Lauren Whittaker (25 of 61, 41%).
“We have people who aren’t shooting a bunch of them who are still pretty good (shooters),” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “We don’t take bad ones very often.”
Fortier’s Zags travel to Corvallis on Thursday to face Oregon State. Both teams are 6-1 in the WCC and 14-6 overall.
WSU ‘taking steps’
Washington State is still slogging away (4-17, 3-5), seventh in the WCC and three games out of second with 10 games remaining.
The Cougars travel to Pacific (7-11, 2-5) on Thursday in a single game this week.
WSU and Pacific are among four teams with five losses. A win by the Cougars would keep them in the hunt for an upper-division postseason seed.
“At times we’re taking steps and in some ways we really have improved on the court,” WSU coach Kamie Ethridge said. “It’s just finishing off games and not beating yourself.”
Around the Big Sky
Idaho swept a pair of home games last week, topping Idaho State and Weber State.
Eastern Washington split, losing to Idaho State 66-57 on Saturday. After a low-scoring first quarter, the Bengals outscored EWU 20-11 in the second and the Eagles couldn’t dig out of the hole.
“I thought we competed and played with urgency in the second half,” EWU coach Joddie Gleason said. “Unfortunately in the first half, we didn’t play with enough toughness to beat a solid Idaho State team. … If you can’t handle Idaho State’s physicality, they exploit you.”
EWU (9-9, 2-3), seventh in conference standings, travels to Portland State (5-12, 1-4) on Thursday and down to Sacramento State (9-9, 3-2) on Saturday.
Idaho (13-5, 4-1), tied for second in losses behind leading Montana State (12-4, 5-0), visits Sacramento State on Thursday and goes to Portland State on Saturday.
Weekly honors
For a fifth straight week and eighth time this season, Gonzaga redshirt freshman forward Lauren Whittaker has been named West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week.
Whittaker led Gonzaga with 26 points and 11 rebounds in a 82-69 win over San Francisco last Thursday and had 13 rebounds, seven points and three steals in a 87-42 victory over San Diego on Saturday. She has a record 10 double-doubles, two more than all freshmen in the nation.
In late December, Whittaker was a double WCC winner when she was named both the Freshman of the Week and Player of the Week.
• Idaho graduate forward Debora Dos Santos has been named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week.
Dos Santos had a pair of double-double win wins last week. She had 12 points and 10 rebounds against Idaho State and followed with 12 points and 12 rebounds against Weber State.
A transfer this season from San Francisco, Dos Santos is coming off knee surgery. She has come off the bench in 13 games for Idaho. The Rio de Janeiro native eclipsed the 1,000-point career plateau against Weber State.
An All-WCC First Team player last year when she averaged 15.3 points and 10.6 rebounds, Dos Santos was the highest-rated recruit that Idaho signed in a transfer portal class that was ranked No. 23 in the nation.