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SPOKANE, Wash. – Four overtimes – the longest game in West Coast Conference women's basketball history – featured a battle to the finish between the San Francisco Dons and Gonzaga Bulldogs. In the end, the 10-time defending conference champion escaped with the 91-84 victory Saturday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

"I've never been involved in a four overtime game," head coach Jennifer Azzi noted after the marathon on the court. "Never. This is the first one ever – playing, coaching. I don't even know if I've ever been involved in a three overtime game, so this was pretty crazy. This team is really special. They get along very, very well, and they're very supportive of one another. I'm just so proud of our team."

The sellout crowd of 6,000 was in for a treat from the opening tip, and the Dons did what they've been doing all season long – with Paige Spietz winning the tip. USF scored the first points in the game off of an offensive rebound and layup for Taylor Proctor, and the Bulldogs knew they were in for a battle.

With the shot clock winding down, Taj Winston put up a high-arcing 3-pointer and USF held the 7-1 lead with 17:42 on the clock. The Bulldogs were in the unusual position of playing from behind for large swaths of the game.

In fact, the Gonzaga had only trailed for 15:47 in the 440 total minutes of conference play entering the contest. Pacific held the lead for the longest, a tally of four minutes, 58 seconds. The Dons outpaced that mark by the Tigers in the first five minutes of action, and finished the first half owning the advantage for 12:03. And by the end of the quadruple overtime game, USF was on top for 21:29, outpacing the combined minutes tally of the last 11 games for the Zags.

Gonzaga didn't see their first lead of the day until Lindsay Sherbert hit a 3-pointer with 9:29 remaining in the period. Proctor answered back with a layup for the Dons and the see-saw finish to the first half was in full force. At the break, Gonzaga edged out to the 31-30 lead after Emma Stach's layup with 49. 5 seconds remaining.

Gonzaga opened the second half of action on a 11-2 run to pull out to a double-digit lead, their largest of the night, when Elle Tinkle connected on a long-range shot to put the score at 42-32 with 14:56 to play. Then, the Dons got a 3-pointer from Taj Winston off the pass from Anna Seilund, and Michaela Rakova got the layup to cut Gonzaga's lead in half.

With 6:55 remaining, USF tied it up after a successful trip to the line for Spietz. The Dons took the lead on their ensuing possession, after Spietz again connected on both attempts from the arc to make it 52-51.

The Dons and Bulldogs stayed locked in a dual through the remainder of the period. With 2:01 remaining in regulation, Georgia Stirton connected on a three point try to give the Bulldogs the three point lead, but the Dons regained the lead with 59 ticks on the clock. After Rakova's layup set the score at 59-58 in favor of USF, Gonzaga again regained the lead with 29.3 second remaining, and had a three point advantage with just 9.7 seconds in the second period. The sharp shooting of Seilund came to the rescue with 2.0 seconds remaining as she knotted the score at 62 apiece to force the first overtime.

The first overtime period was low scoring as each team managed by two points in the frame.  Spietz' offensive rebound and putback with 1:01 to play again tied the game, and Zhane Dikes got a bad roll on the layup with 24.2 seconds remaining as the game went into a second overtime.

In USF's second extra period of the afternoon, the Bulldogs jumped out to a four point lead midway through the action after Sunny Greinacher's jumper made it 68-64 in favor of the home team. USF would get a pair from the line from Seilund, the freshman from Copenhagen, Denmark, and a triple with 1:08 to play to take the lead. The Dons were up 70-68 with 23.9 seconds in the second overtime before Sherbert knotted the game at 70-70 to force a third overtime.

Continuing the back and forth feel of the contest, USF scored first in the frame, but the Bulldogs again leapt in front in the period's closing moments. Aundrea Gordon's 3-pointer found the bottom of the net with 6.6 on the clock to yet again extend the game to a fourth and final overtime.

The Dons opened the period with the first four points after a layup form Gordon with 3:47 on the clock. Gonzaga again tied the contest at 82 apiece, the 14th tie score of the contest, on a layup from Greinacher. Unfortunately for the Dons, the scoring stalled in the closing minutes of the game, and the team was forced to foul. USF eventually succumbed to the Bulldogs 91-84, giving Gonzaga its closest contest by far in the WCC slate.

"I think our mindset as a program has changed so much in the last couple years just as we've been getting better," Azzi said "To play in a four overtime game at Gonzaga is outstanding, but at the same time we want to win the game. It's a bittersweet feeling – we were right there. Our team hit big plays. Aundrea's three, Anna's three, Paige's tip in, Michaela came up huge for us.

"We had three freshmen out there to end the game – Michaela, Anna, and Kalyn. That in itself is pretty huge to go to four overtimes. Not to take anything away from Gonzaga, but our more experienced players were on the bench, either with foul trouble or injury."

The Dons finished the game with five double-digit scorers, paced by 19 points on .500 shooting from Proctor. Rakova added 17 points, eight rebounds and three steals for USF. Spietz, Winston and Dikes all finished with at least 10 points in the loss.

Led by a game-high 20 points from Keani Albanez, Gonzaga improves to 19-4 on the season, and stands at a perfect 12-0 in WCC play. The Dons move to 14-10 (5-8 WCC) after handing the Bulldogs quite a scare.

"What you want is a week of preparation as well as a break after four overtimes, that's for sure," Azzi said about USF's upcoming week. "I always like practice weeks, so I think this is going to be a good week for us."

USF's next opponent is long-time rival Santa Clara. The Dons are seeking the season sweep over the Broncos since the 1996-97 campaign. Tip-off from Santa Clara's Leavey Center is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m.