LOS ANGELES – The San Francisco women's basketball team earned its fourth-straight victory, taming Loyola Marymount 74-65 at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.
The victory is USF's 13th of the year, and the Dons now stand at 13-7 overall, and 4-5 in West Coast Conference play. The win tally already represents a new best in the
Jennifer Azzi era with a guarantee of at least 10 more games on the season. Meanwhile, Loyola Marymount slips to 3-17 (1-8 WCC).
USF was led by junior
Taylor Proctor's double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Zhane Dikes added 16 points on an effective 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and added four assists. Southern California native
Taj Winston contributed 12 points and four steals, and
Aundrea Gordon assisted on five scoring plays for the Dons.
The Lions opened the game with the first basket, despite USF again earning the first possession of the contest after the opening jump. Proctor knotted the game at six apiece, and the USF defense went to work. Winston denied the shot attempt from Taylor Anderson and Dikes responded with the jumper. Then, Dikes stepped in to take a charge to give USF possession. Two baskets from Winston and a triple off the hand of Dikes capped a 12-0 scoring run for the Dons and put the visitors up 15-6 with 13:09 remaining in the period.
The Lions rallied to get within one after going on a 10-1 spurt of their own, capped by a jumper from Sophie Taylor with 8:46 left in the first half. The pendulum of momentum then swung back the way of the Dons after Winston took a charge and Gordon swished a 3-pointer on USF's next possession. After back-to-back layups from Proctor,
Michaela Rakova went to work in the paint and got the shot to fall to give the Dons the 27-17 lead with 4:36 left in the first half.
USF's eight-point halftime lead dwindled in the opening moments of the second after four consecutive made free throws from Loyola Marymount's Anderson. Leslie Lopez-Wood swished a three pointer with 17:27 on the clock and the Lions found themselves down by just three points. Back-to-back scores for Rakova extended the Dons' margin, and USF was up 56-44 with 8:22 remaining after
Anna Seilund hit her second 3-pointer of the period.
After a 10-0 run from Loyola Marymount, the Lions again trailed by just two before Proctor halted the spurt with a three from the top of the arc. Loyola Marymount could get no closer before the Dons exited the gym with the 74-65 victory and earned the Southland sweep for the second straight season.
USF finished the game shooting 52.8 percent, compared to Loyola Marymount's 36.7 percent effort. However, the Lions finished the battle of the boards with a sizeable 40 to 27 advantage, and the home team benefitted from 18 second-chance points off 20 offensive rebounds. Lopez-Wood finished as the Lions' leading scorer with 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
Next, the Dons head home to the friendly confines of War Memorial Gym to open the second half of the conference slate. The Dons take on BYU Thursday at 7 p.m., looking to avenge a three-point loss to the Cougars in the opening days of the New Year.
