Gonzaga women reclaim WCC Tournament crown with 76-66 win over Oregon State

LAS VEGAS – The Gonzaga women’s basketball team bid farewell to the West Coast Conference in splendid fashion Tuesday afternoon.

A showdown with Oregon State settled into a typical Beavers-Zags dogfight, and the Bulldogs showed uncharacteristic poise in pulling out a 76-66 victory before a crowd of 3,345 at Orleans Arena.

Then the Zags ripped it up on the stage, and there was WCC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year Lauren Whittaker leading the way as she and the Zags danced and danced and danced.

Whittaker was named the WCC Tournament most outstanding player after scoring a game-high 26 points and somehow corralling nine rebounds while constantly being double -teamed. She also had three assists and two steals.

Whittaker also may have been the MOD – most outstanding dancer.

The Zags (24-9) advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in two years. Gonzaga has never missed going to the Big Dance in consecutive years after qualifying for the first time in 2006-07.

Gonzaga captured its first WCC Tournament championship in four years.

And by stopping Oregon State (23-11), the Zags avenged an emotional 63-61 loss administered by the Beavers almost a year to the day. That setback sent Gonzaga to the WBIT, which was little consolation.

The Beavers knocked off the Zags 92-87 in overtime in the first regular-season matchup. Then the anomaly in this growing rivalry occurred when Gonzaga put a 67-37 beatdown on OSU in the return game in Spokane.

Those two games represented the most points scored and least points scored by the Beavers this season.

Many have grown accustomed to seeing knucklebuster matchups that extend to the very end between these two teams. Last year, two of the three games were decided in overtime before the heartbreaking loss in the WCC Tournament.

It was a one-possession game until the final five minutes. To that point there had been 10 ties and 15 lead changes.

Then the Zags fashioned a couple timely defensive stops and put together their best finish of the season.

Gonzaga played with composure, committing just three turnovers in the first half and eight by game’s end, nine below its season average.

Zags coach Lisa Fortier expected nothing but the best from OSU. And that always presents difficulties.

“Every time it gets hard you have a choice,” Fortier said. “Every time it got hard our team made big shots, got stops, got rebounds, made big plays.”

Whittaker muscled inside for a three-point play with six minutes to play, breaking the final tie at 59-59. The Zags increased the lead thereafter.

Forced to foul, Oregon State sent the Zags to the free-throw line where they made 9 of 10 in the final 1 minute, 17 seconds.

Two foul shots by sophomore Teryn Gardner gave Gonzaga its biggest lead at 74-64 with 26.9 seconds to go, and the crowd could sense that this one wasn’t going to slip away like it did last season.

Whittaker carried the offensive load in the first half. Seemingly like exchanging a baton, sophomore guard Allie Turner – scoreless in the first half – took over in the third quarter, scoring 10 points. She finished with 14, five assists and four rebounds.

“We found an offense that was working (in the third quarter) – the high ball screen,” said Turner, who joined Whittaker on the All-Tournament team.

Turner made 2 of 3 from 3-point range in the third, forcing the Beavers to pick their poison defending the offensive adjustment – go with Whittaker or hedge and close out on Turner.

OSU chose to stay with Whittaker and Turner responded.

“They couldn’t guard us both there,” Turner said. “I didn’t have very many looks in the first half and I wasn’t being as aggressive. That was one of my goals in the second half.”

The Zags’ lone senior, Ines Bettencourt, added 12 points, three steals and three rebounds to go with her usually effective defense.

“Our team has talked a lot about taking care of the basketball, and when we take care of the basketball we’re really hard to stop,” Fortier said.

Washington State transfer guard Jenna Villa led Oregon State with 20 points.