Box Score
| VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS - LA TRIP
MALIBU, Calif. – Continuing its success on the road, the San Francisco women's basketball team used a dominating second half to down Pepperdine 77-61 Saturday afternoon at Firestone Fieldhouse.
The Dons move to 7-7 (2-1 West Coast Conference) and have won four of its last five contests away from the Bay Area. Pepperdine drops to 5-10 (1-3 WCC) on the season.
"I'm pleased with how we played, it was a real team effort tonight," said head coach Jennifer Azzi. "Taylor stepped up really big for us, Taj put together two really solid back-to-back games with one day of rest in between. It's a testament to where she's gotten to as a player.
"Across the board, I think everyone played really important minutes for us whether they were coming in to give a breather for someone or playing extended minutes. It was very much team oriented."
USF was paced in the game by Taylor Proctor's banner night as the sophomore from Colorado Springs, Colo., went off for a career-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Taj Winston, a junior from Long Beach, Calif., followed up her team-leading performance in USF's win against Loyola Marymount with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double, her second of the year.
Rachel Howard's 13 points and Paige Spietz' career-high 11 point outing rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Dons. Proctor, Spietz and Claudia Price each grabbed seven rebounds in the contest, as USF won the battle of the boards 45-39. Playing through illness, Zhané Dikes added a team-high five assists as the Dons shared the ball for a season-best 18 assists on the day.
The Dons scored first in the contest as Winston's offensive rebound and putback opened the game. After a jumper from Spietz at the top of the paint, the score was tied at four apiece before the Pepperdine offense exploded with a 12-2 run to take a double-digit lead with 14:55 to play. Allie Green's jumper made the score 16-6 in favor of the home team as USF fell behind early.
USF regrouped to score the next nine points in the game, forcing Pepperdine to miss its next five attempts from the field and commit two turnovers. After the Waves started the game at an 8-for-11 clip, Pepperdine closed out the period shooting 6-for-29. The Dons nabbed its first lead of the night on a Proctor layup with 6:01 to play and the score at 25-23.
USF and Pepperdine stayed close for the remainder of the half, and Grace Leah Baughn's 3-pointer with four seconds remaining in the period pulled Pepperdine within three.
"Coach said when we were in the locker room to just focus on getting post touches, whether it was to go to the rim with it or not, and I think it really opened up our offense," said Spietz. "We really shared the ball well tonight and I think that prevailed in the end. We've been talking about putting two good back-to-back games together on the offensive and defensive end and I think we got it done today."
The second half started with a Pepperdine basket to put the USF lead at 33-32, but the Dons never allowed the Waves to get closer. USF broke open the game midway through the period. With 12:28 to play, Proctor started a 21-5 run for the Dons. The run was capped with eight consecutive points from Spietz and USF led 63-44 with 7:22 remaining.
Another eight-point run was capped by a steal and fast-break layup by Aundrea Gordon. Gordon's bucket was followed by a successful trip to the line for Price as USF ballooned the lead to its largest of the night, 26 points, with the score at 75-49 and the clock reading 4:56.
USF went on to defeat the waves 77-61 and notch its first LA road trip sweep in conference action since the 2002-03 season. The Dons stand at 2-0 since the New Year.
The disruptive and tenacious USF defense held Pepperdine's leading scorer on the season, Bria Richardson, to just four points in the first half, and 12 for the game. In her last outing, Richardson led the Waves with 44 points in a victory over Santa Clara. USF forced the Waves into 13 turnovers, accounting for 15 points. Again utilizing the inside game to their advantage, the Dons outscored Pepperdine 46-18 in the paint.
"We keep building our confidence off the games we just played," Proctor said after her career night. "We have a lot of stuff to work on, yeah, but getting points in the paint, playing good defense and playing as a team is going to give us that confidence to keep it going and start a streak."
USF returns home for the first time in more than three weeks, hosting Pacific on Thursday at 7 p.m.
