let’s hope for a nice Kennel send-off against the Dons
After a Thursday night game that was a bit ugly, the team and the Spokane faithful will be looking for a more refined performance this afternoon against the San Francisco Dons at 12pm PST that will be streamed on ESPN+.
Not only will this be the final regular season home game of the ‘24-25 campaign for us to view, it will also be an afternoon full of honors as the program gets ready to celebrate senior night.
As you can see from the image I took from the Gonzaga WBB twitter account, the school looks to be honoring five players, which is a bit interesting because Bree Salenbien is listed as a redshirt junior on the official roster. The other four players will be Tayla Dalton, Esther Little, Maud Huijbens, and the soon-to-be legendary Yvonne Ejim.
Tayla Dalton may be the newest face rocking the Navy/Red, but she has looked like a natural in her single campaign in Spokane after missing a big chunk of this season due to injuries sustained in the preseason ramp-up. She brings strong intensity in her time on the court, has featured in a multitude of positions for Coach Fortier, and has shown up in some really important moments. Despite averaging the fewest minutes per game of her career since being a freshman, the Aussie has posted career highs in rebounds per game with 3.5, second-highest assists with 2.2, and turned the ball over just 1.1 times per game.
Esther Little has never really featured much for the Bulldogs in her four years, but in her senior year, the Englishwoman has been depended on more than ever and she’s delivered fairly well, particularly as the season has progressed. As it stands, the senior is averaging 2.7 points, 6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.2 blocks, which are all career highs. Since the calendar turned, Little has been anything but her namesake on the boards as she’s grabbed double-digit rebounds in five of her twelve matches including 11 in her last two matches. She may not have developed her scoring to the potential seen in high school, but she’s established herself well on this current Zags squad
Maud Huijbens was primed for a big role on this roster iteration of the Bulldogs with the departure of Eliza Hollingsworth after last year and despite some inconsistent offensive contributions, I think the Dutchwoman has been quite impressive this season. She’s posting career highs in points, 9.1, rebounds, 7.4, assists, 2.0, steals, 0.9, and blocks, 0.5. Her shooting hasn’t been as hot as her junior year, but the forward has registered new career highs in points with 23 against Santa Clara in January and rebounds with 19 against Colorado State earlier in the campaign. It’s a shame that she suffered her second concussion of her college career that forced her to miss 6 games, but she’s making her comeback at the ideal time of the year.
And last but not least for those registered as seniors, Yvonne Ejim. I’ve written entire articles highlighting her dominance so I won’t spend many words at this time reviewing her achievements at this time. However, it has to be said that despite her rough game last time out against St. Mary’s, the Canadian has been the center of this team’s, and potentially yours, universe as she’s averaging 21.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.1 steal, and 1.0 block. Her shooting efficiency is naturally down this year as opponents have, rightfully so, developed game plans to try and hold the senior back, but even that is not enough to hold down this Bulldog. Definitely going to miss having her presence around both on and off the court.
Despite the last matchup between Gonzaga and USF being just over 2 months ago, it feels like forever. Part of that reason is the world has been rapidly changing with the presidential turnover, but also because this Gonzaga team looks very different to what we saw back in December.
The last match ended in a pretty embarrassing defeat for GU as they fell 73-58 and just looked off throughout much of the contest. Since that time, the Bulldogs have gone 14-1 and seen their chances of a successful post-season bid go from questionable to near lock. On the flip side, the Dons have been unable to capitalize on their early success in the conference and they currently sit tied with St. Mary’s for 5th in the WCC with a 12-14 (9-8) record.
Part of the Dons’ recent struggles center around the absence of senior forward Debra Dos Santos who hasn’t featured since January 4th. I’m assuming this relates to injury given her history of struggles in this area, but I can’t be certain. In her last match, the Brazilian scored 26 points against Pepperdine and with her not playing, the USF offense has basically fallen to senior guard Freja Werth and forward Emma Trawally Porta.
Those two players are averaging 15.9 and 11.1 points, respectively, and no other Dons player is averaging more than 10 points per game. Despite this top-heavy scoring distribution, the Zags will need to be careful with the other two guards, freshman Angeliki Ziaka and senior Luana Leite as both have the potential to drop 20 points on any given day.
Head Coach Molly Goodenbour’s team plays strong defense as they rank in the top three amongst WCC teams by allowing opponents to score just 63.5 points per game, their beating their opponents in the rebounding margin with 38.7 boards per game, and they rank in the top 75 nationally with just under 4 blocks per game. Thankfully they don’t look to turn their opponents over much with just 14.7 turnovers generated per game, but the Bulldogs will need to handle the ball much, much better than they did against St. Mary’s on Thursday.
Hit the comments below to share your thoughts on the match. Catch you soon!