SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco women's basketball team fended off a late charge from Columbia to open the season with a 70-65 victory over the visiting Lions Friday at War Memorial Gym.
USF was paced by junior forward
Taylor Proctor, who finished with a 15-point, 14-rebound double-double on the night. The forward from Colorado Springs, Colo., and preseason All-West Coast Conference selection, was joined by a solid scoring effort from fellow Preseason All-WCC performer
Zhane Dikes. The junior guard from Las Vegas, Nev., added 14 points and five rebounds in the victory.
The trio of seniors for USF made its mark in the season's opening contest.
Taj Winston compiled 12 points, three assists and two steals for the Dons,
Paige Spietz added 11 points on effective 5-of-8 shooting, and
Aundrea Gordon finished with five points and an assist in the contest.
With the win, USF opens the year 1-0 for just the third time since the turn of the century, and the Dons now boast a 5-0 all-time record over Columbia.
USF led by as many as 21 points with 15 minutes remaining after scoring 10 straight. During the 2:41 span, USF's defense forced three turnovers, and Columbia shooters went 0-for-4 from the field. After two successful attempts at the line by Winston,
Rachel Howard stole the ball from the Lions and threw the outlet pass to a streaking Gordon for the fast-break basket.
Another Columbia turnover followed, and USF's Proctor was the beneficiary after per layup found the bottom of the net. After Howard's defensive rebound,
Claudia Price got in on the scoring frenzy, and Proctor finished the run off after an assist from freshman
Anna Seilund. At that point, the Dons were up 53-32.
However, Columbia continued to fire at will from beyond the arc, and chipped away at USF's sizeable lead.
"They're a great shooting team, and we let them back in," noted Proctor in a post-game interview with play-by-play man,
George Devine. "I think we had a lot better first half all-around, playing good defense. And then the second half, we did do quite as good on the shooters. But I'm glad that we won."
Alexa Giuliano, a freshman for the Lions, shaved the lead to five points with 2:27 remaining in the contest. After a pair of free throws for Howard, Camille Zimmerman drained her long-range attempt to put the score at 69-75 with 16 ticks on the clock. After a steal on the inbounds play, Zimmerman's three-point attempt caromed off the rim and the Lions were forced to foul.
Spietz made one of two from the line, and Giuliano's 17th 3-point attempt of the night fell short but the Lions retained possession with three seconds to play. On the ensuing inbounds play, Winston stole the ball and hung on until the clock expired.
Guiliano finished as the game's leading scorer, with 20 points on 6-of-21 shooting, and three other Lions notched double-digit efforts. As a team, Columbia only connected on 32.8 percent of its shots, but 10 of its baskets were from beyond the arc, accounting for nearly half of their points on the night.
All told, the Dons finished with 36 points in the paint, compared to Columbia's 12, added 17 points off 17 Columbia turnovers, and stood in to take six charges on the night. USF narrowly won the battle of the boards 42 to 41, and outshot the Lions 40.7 to 32.8 percent. Despite holding the overall shooting advantage, the notable difference that favored Columbia was 3-point shooting. The Lions finished 10-of-28 from 3-point range, while the Dons were only 2-of-11 from beyond the arc.
USF continues its three-game homestand to open the season as the Dons welcome Sonoma State to the Hilltop Sunday at 2 p.m., in a men's and women's basketball double-header. The men take to the court at 5 p.m., facing off against South Carolina State.
The first 500 spectators at the women's contest will receive free schedule keytags, and fans can exchange a canned food item for a $5 general admission ticket, good for both Sunday games at War Memorial Gym.
