Gonzaga women have hope for future after strong fourth quarter | NCAA Tournament notebook

MINNEAPOLIS – The effort was there Friday, the execution not so much.

The Gonzaga women’s basketball team was bounced from the NCAA Tournament in an 81-66 first-round loss to 19th-ranked Ole Miss at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena.

But it wasn’t an end for No. 5-seeded Gonzaga. Sure the book is closed on the 2025-26 season, but 11 of 12 Zags return next year if the roster stays intact.

The way the Bulldogs finished Friday was overwhelmingly encouraging for next season.

Moments after the teams had gone through the handshake line, Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier made it a point to have an on-court hug with one particular player – lone senior Ines Bettencourt.

The UConn transfer who spent her final two seasons at Gonzaga had seven points, three assists and four rebounds in her final game.

“All the tears in the locker room were basically about (Ines),” Fortier said. “She worked through what she worked through her first two years at UConn and even last year there was a lot she had to work through. This year she’s been as good as any leader we’ve ever had.”

Bettencourt is the type of leader Fortier wants all her teams to feature.

“She challenges people when they have below-the-line behavior,” Fortier said. “If she makes a mistake, she admits that she’s made a mistake. One of my coaches commented that she doesn’t look like a two-year player for us and a one-year starter. She looks like someone who has been in our program for four or five years and gave everything because she cared with everything she had in her heart about Gonzaga basketball.”

It wasn’t the result Bettencourt wanted, but she had nothing but love for her teammates afterward.

“We were having fun (in the fourth quarter). The last 10 minutes of my career,” Bettencourt said. “It’s been a rewarding season. If you look at the start to now, we’re a completely different team. It was fun to grow as a leader and grow up as a player with all of these girls and my coaching staff. I’m happy because we got to March Madness. I never thought we’d do that, but we finished the race. So I’m just happy for the team and myself.”

A late rally

The Zags found themselves in a 33-point deficit, and they didn’t roll over.

“It’s hard to play when you’re losing by (33), but Lisa (Fortier) took us at every timeout to keep going,” sophomore guard Allie Turner said. “We did that and I’m so proud of our team.”

Ole Miss knew who Lauren Whittaker was, and the Rebels weren’t about to let the West Coast Conference Player and Freshman of the Year get rolling.

Whittaker struggled, making just 4 of 21 shots from the field. She had a game-high 13 rebounds and eight points.

Many times Whittaker was sandwiched between three Rebels. She rarely got a free look at the basket.

“Personally, finishing was just a lot harder against that kind of defense,” Whittaker said. “The shots weren’t falling.”

Whittaker praised her team for digging in in the final period.

“We played our best basketball, playing free, playing together, and it was cool to make a little run there,” Whittaker said. “Overall I’m really proud of the team. We knew we had to leave it all out there. That’s when we played our best basketball and you could see it – the smiles on our faces, pointing at each other.”

Whittaker said the Zags have much potential.

“We really don’t know what our ceiling is, so that’s really exciting,” Whittaker said. “We can compete at this level, the fourth quarter really showed (it). If we can do that from the start going forward in future seasons, we could be really good.”

Different level of physicality

Fortier said she wasn’t criticizing the officials.

“It’s challenging when you get here after being officiated a certain way for the entirety of the year … it’s just different,” Fortier said. “So there were a couple of plays where Lauren is literally being bear mauled and I think that’s common in the SEC. That’s not what she had to face in our conference.”

Zags optimistic

Sophomore guard Allie Turner stepped up for Gonzaga, scoring a game-high 27 points which included five 3-pointers.

“Our team is really young and I’m excited to get back here,” Turner said of being in the NCAA Tournament. “It’s something that not a lot of teams get to do and we all recognize that. That fourth quarter so much fun. To play another one of those would be amazing.”

Sophomore guard Teryn Gardner came off the bench and made all three of her 3-point shots in the fourth quarter.

“It shows the kind of fight we have as a team and the kind of team we are,” Gardner said. “We’re never gonna stop and never gonna give up for each other. As Whitty (Whittaker) has said, we have a high ceiling. We’re just gonna come back next year and work our butts off like this season. We ended the season on a high note.”