SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco women's basketball team battled to the end, but couldn't overcome the hot-shooting visitors from Gonzaga. Despite a second-half threat, the 10-time defending West Coast Conference champions left War Memorial Gym with the 75-64 victory Thursday night.

The Bulldogs now stand at 11-4 on the season, and a perfect 4-0 in WCC action, while the Dons fall to 9-7. The next opportunity to bump the win column to double digits comes against Portland Saturday at 2 p.m., as both the Dons and Pilots vie for their first victory in league play.

The Dons finished the night with three double-digit performances, paced by Taylor Proctor's 17 points and game-high nine rebounds. Senior Paige Spietz added 13 points, nine of which came in the first half, and Taj Winston put together a line of 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in her first game wearing a protective face mask.

Despite trailing by 12 points at the halftime break, the Dons opened on a tear with the first three baskets in the period, capped by a steal, drive and bucket for Taj Winston to put the score at 44-40 in favor of the visitors. The Bulldogs reclaimed the double-digit lead shortly thereafter, helped by a 10-0 run, but the Dons weren't done challenging.

With 12:15 to play in the game, freshman Anna Seilund drilled the 3-pointer, and then hit another to make the margin 10. Then, fellow first-year and international player Michaela Rakova got in on the action with a layup assisted by Zhane Dikes. After a successful outing to the line for Dikes, USF had narrowed what was once a 14 point lead down to six. The 58-52 gap with 10:51 to play proved to be as close as USF could muster, despite opportunities to slice the lead even further.

The Dons eventually succumbed to the Bulldogs by a final tally of 75-64 as Gonzaga extended its winning streak to five games.  While both teams shot over 40 percent from the floor, the Bulldogs took advantage of USF mistakes, capitalizing on 17 Dons' turnovers to get 24 points. USF, typically solid from the free throw line, had an off night from the stripe connecting on just 12-of-19 attempts.

The contest opened with back-and-forth scoring and the teams were knotted at 10-all after Spietz knocked down the layup after the feed from Taylor Proctor. The game remained deadlocked at 14-14 as Proctor saw one of two free throws find the bottom of the net with 14:21 on the clock in the first. After an eight point run for the Zags, USF answered with a string of 10 of their own to nab the 32-30 advantage with 4:10 remaining in the period. But the Bulldogs closed out the half on a 14-0 run including a buzzer beater by Elle Tinkle to take the teams into halftime. At the break, Gonzaga was up 44-32.

Tinkle, sister of Stanford women's basketball alumna Joslyn and daughter of Oregon State men's basketball head coach Wayne, finished the night with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, seven rebounds and three steals to lead the Bulldogs to victory. Held scoreless in the first half, Shaniqua Nilles added 11 second half points on 75 percent shooting in 11 minutes of action.

Next for the Dons is a date with Portland, where one team in the game will come away with their first WCC win. Tipoff on Saturday is slated for 2 p.m., at War Memorial Gym.

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