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SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco women's basketball team dominated Dominican in a 96-59 rout of the Penguins Wednesday night at War Memorial Gym.
The exhibition game was marked by sweltering first half shooting where the Dons hit 54.3 percent of its attempts in the period. Not too far behind, Dominican was hitting at a 42.9 percent clip in the first, as USF led 51-40 at the break. The second half saw both squads cool off, but the Dons used a 37-19 rebounding edge to overpower the Penguins to the victory.
USF was led in scoring by junior
Taj Winston's double-double of 26 points and 11 rebounds. Winston was 10-of-17 from the field to pace the field.
Jamie Katuna, junior from Longmont, Calif., got in the scoring frenzy with a 19-point outing. Missing the majority of last season due to injury, Katuna didn't have to shake off much rust as she sunk six of her seven attempts from the field and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
"It felt good coming back from being injured to be able to get back into the swing of it with the team," Katuna said with a smile on the usfdons.com post-game show.
"Whenever she scores she hypes us up," Winston added. "I get excited for her and cheer for her. It's good for me to cheer for my teammates, and I need to do that more. Jamie just gives me that enthusiasm and hypeness every time I see her out there."
Sophomore
Taylor Proctor added 15 points and eight rebounds in the contest, and redshirt junior
Paige Spietz finished with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for the double-double. The Dons outrebounded the Penguins 60-36 in the contest and held Dominican to just 3-of-18 shooting from 3-point range, with all three makes coming in the first period of play.
USF scored first immediately after the jump as Spietz tipped the ball to
Rachel Howard who went in for the layup seconds into the game. But Dominican raced to the lead with a 7-0 run. With 15:35 remaining in the period, Proctor drained a three to tie the game at nine apiece. On the ensuing defensive possession, the Dons forced an errant shot as the clock expired and secured the rebound. Winston nailed her 3-pointer from the left side of the floor to put the Dons back in front and they were off to the races.
Eight minutes into the game, USF had built a double-digit lead off a Proctor jumper, but the Penguins whittled it back down to four as Jessy Marshall's shot made the score 24-20 with 10:10 to play in the first. The Dons again built up the lead and USF owned the 47-30 advantage as
Hashima Carothers' layup off a dish from Proctor with under four minutes remaining in the half.
The second half margin grew to 28 points after two makes from the stripe by freshman
Claudia Price with 10:51 to play in the game. The Dons bumped up the difference to 39 on another successful trip to the free throw line for Price with 3:15 remaining and the score at 92-53. The freshman from Mesquite, Texas, finished the game a perfect 6-for-6 from the line as USF shot 71 percent from the charity stripe in the game.
"It doesn't really matter if it's an exhibition or not," Winston explained of the game." We've still got to come out here and do what we've got to do, whether it counts or not. To us it counts because it just shows what we've got to work on so that's good for us – turnovers, box outs, penetrating a pitching, getting wide open shots, working as a team. We still have work to do."
USF returns to regular-season game action Sunday as it welcomes Long Beach State to the Hilltop for a 2 p.m. tip.
