Box Score
SPOKANE, Wash. – The San Francisco women's basketball team scored early and often to push Gonzaga to its limits in the first half. However, the second half was a different story for Dons, as Gonzaga regrouped to take the 101-66 victory Saturday afternoon at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Ranked No. 22 in the AP Top 25 Poll, and standing at No. 17 in the USAToday Coaches Poll, Gonzaga improves to 20-3 overall, and 10-1 in the West Coast Conference to lead the league. With the defeat, the Dons move to 8-14 (3-8 WCC).
USF was paced by four double-digit scorers, with
Zhané Dikes scoring 14 points and adding five assists.
Alexa Hardick and
Taylor Proctor both added 11 points in the game, and Hardick got her first career block.
Taj Winston posted 10 points and a team-high three steals for the Dons.
After the Bulldogs sunk the opening basket of the contest, Hardick picked up where she left off Thursday in Portland – draining a 3-pointer to get USF on the high side. Capitalizing on early turnovers and offensive rebounds, Gonzaga earned nine of its first 15 points off of second-chance opportunities.
The margin hovered under 10 points for the next five minutes in the contest when Dikes hesitated under the basket to shake her defenders and put the ball up and in setting the score at 27-22 with 10:15 remaining in the first. After a jumper by Gonzaga's Shaniqua Nilles, Winston's layup sparked a string of nine straight points for USF.
In the midst of the run to get the lead, Winston picked Gonzaga's pocket. Hardick passed back to a streaking Winston for the transition layup. The Bulldogs committed another turnover in its next possession and Hardick swished the 3-pointer and gave USF its first lead of the day with the score at 31-29 with 7:55 remaining in the half.
The Dons extended the lead to four points, its largest in the game, when Dikes went to the line and swished a pair of free throws to put the score at 36-32 with 5:54 remaining in the period. Dikes, USF's leading scorer, was just 3-for-9 from the field on the day but went an effective 8-for-10 from the stripe.
USF saw its last lead of the day when Proctor converted her three-point play with 2:25 remaining in the half and the Dons maintaining the four point advantage. Gonzaga rolled off the last eight points of the period to close the half with a 50-46 lead.
The 46 points put up by the Dons stands as the highest tally in a half by a Gonzaga opponent. USF shot a sweltering 70.8 percent in the period, including a 5-of-8 effort from beyond the arc.
The Bulldogs started the second half with the first seven points of the period to extend the run to 15 in a row and nab a double-digit advantage for the first time of the day. With the momentum firmly on the side of the Zags, the home team pulled away for the easy victory, outscoring the Dons 51-20 in the second period.
Gonzaga turned up the pressure to force USF into 13 second-half turnovers that led to 23 points. All told, the Bulldogs earned 36 points off USF miscues. Gonzaga owned a 37-17 advantage on the glass, and the 18-4 offensive rebounding edge. Second-chance points proved to be key for the Bulldogs' offense as they added 30 points to the scoresheet off additional offensive opportunities. Both teams closed the game shooting over 50 percent, with Gonzaga taking the category 56 to 51 percent.
Gonzaga was led by Lindsay Sherbert's 23 points and seven rebounds. Haiden Palmer, the leading scorer for the Bulldogs on the season, was held to eight points. This breaks a six-game stretch of double-digit scoring for the senior from Moreno Valley, Calif.
Up next, the Dons host San Diego Thursday at 7 p.m.
