SAN FRANCISCO – In her penultimate home game of her collegiate career, senior
Aundrea Gordon led the San Francisco women's basketball team to the season sweep of Loyola Marymount, as USF notched the 87-75 victory over the Lions Thursday night at War Memorial Gym.
"I enjoy playing with Aundrea a lot," fellow senior
Taj Winston said. "She's one of my favorite players to play with because she just has that Chris Paul feel – a little Chris Paul, Jr. But tonight she was a little [Stephen] Curry, Jr.! It's been a blessing to be able to play with her these four years and I couldn't be more proud of her tonight."
Gordon's 20 points on 62.5 percent shooting and four 3-pointers led a handful of Dons with double-figure scoring. Joining her in filling up the stat sheet was
Taylor Proctor's 15 points and seven assists, 13 points from Winston, a 14-point night for
Anna Seilund off the bench and 10 points for
Zhane Dikes. As a team, USF shot 53.6 percent from the floor en route to their 15th win of the season.
USF now stands at 15-11 and 6-9 in West Coast Conference action heading into the final stretch of the regular season. The victory guarantees the Dons will finish with a .500 record or better for the first time since the 2001-02 campaign. USF also earned their 10th home victory of the year, a mark only seen two other times since the turn of the century.
"
Aundrea Gordon had the game of her career tonight, and any time that we needed a big shot or when she was getting fouled at the end of the game, she just had composure the entire way through," noted head coach
Jennifer Azzi. "That's how she's been playing all season, but tonight was extra special for Aundrea and I'm proud of her and proud of our senior leadership. I thought Taj had a great second half and to have now a team that's more experienced to be able to handle a team pressing like that and getting on a run and for us to be able to have the composure to come out with a win was big for us.
"We had 19 assists which is huge for us. Taylor, as good as a scorer as she is, had seven assists. I think experience and team chemistry mean so much in basketball and I thought our team chemistry was very good tonight, and it just continues to get better."
The Dons opened the evening on a tear, stretching to a 13-4 lead by the first media timeout after Proctor stole the ball from Shelbi Aimonetti and fed a streaking Dikes for the fast break layup with 16:18 on the clock. However, the Lions would claw back with a 12-2 run to take the lead in the contest.
Seilund answered with a triple off the pass from
Michaela Rakova to tie the score and the Dons would never trail again. Loyola Marymount kept the contest close, and got the margin to one after Leslie Lopez-Wood hit the jumper with 58 seconds remaining in the first period.
Claudia Price scored a layup on USF's next possession, and Gordon drilled the triple at the horn to give the Dons the 40-34 halftime advantage.
The Lions again threatened to challenge for the lead in the second half of action after Lopez-Wood's 3-pointer set the score at 59-57 with 8:27 remaining. Dikes answered with a 3-pointer of her own and the Dons ratcheted up the intensity in the closing minutes of action. USF's advantage ballooned to 10 after five unanswered points for Spietz had the score at 69-59, but the Lions had one more push to make.
With 2:49 remaining in the game, Loyola Marymount's Emily Ben-Jumbo slid into the paint for the jumper to narrow the gap to three points. Again remaining poised to the end, Gordon fired a three to quell the challenge and the Dons went 10-of-11 from the line in the final two minutes to secure the 87-75 victory, and season sweep of the Lions.
Back-to-back season sweeps in the series against Loyola Marymount have been few and far between of late, with the last coming in 1997-98. Including a victory against the Lions in the 2014 WCC Championships, the Dons have now won five straight over their Southland foe.
"Every year since we've been here, we've made strides," Azzi said. "This season, we've continued to advance the program. I just give a lot of credit to the players. They came here with us to do this together, to build a program that San Francisco could be proud of and I couldn't be more proud of our team tonight."
The Dons will take to the court at War Memorial Gym for one last time during the regular season, hosting Pepperdine on Saturday at 2 p.m. USF will bid a formal farewell to the senior trio of Gordon, Spietz and Proctor before the team hits the road to close the year.
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