and the team hangs up the Lobos on the road
Gonzaga travelled to Albuquerque this past Sunday to take on the Lobos in the follow-up to New Mexico’s away game in Spokane last year. Unfortunately, the game was not televised in way that I could view and so the only highlights I have been able to watch come from Gonzaga’s twitter account since the YouTube channel has not provided additional clips nor the post-game interviews.
While this is a bummer for the obvious reasons that I want to watch my team play, it hurts even more seeing Yvonne Ejim’s boxscore numbers which look like video game numbers
33 minutes, 26 points, 11-18 FG, 17 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers, and 0 fouls.
Sheesh. Those are some pretty stout numbers. Additionally, those 17 rebounds helped propel Ejim to #3 in career rebounds for the Gonzaga Women with 880. She currently sits behind Shelby Chesleck’s 932 and Kay Koppleman’s 975, which are numbers that Yvonne should likely surpass at some point this season given that in the past two years, she’s snagged 278 and 296 boards.
Additionally, Yvonne also sits at #3 in career field goals with 734, #3 in career points with 1776, and #3 in win shares with 23.2. While she may not snag the career lead in the win shares department, she has a realistic chance to take such honors in the other two categories given her production the past two years as Ejim only needs 88 field goals and 390 points to secure those records. Last year she dropped 285 field goals and scored 670 points.
This means that Yvonne could hold program records for career marks in 5 or 6 categories, which would trail behind only Courtney Vandersloot’s 8 records. That’s absolutely insane and I hope she bags them all to secure her legendary status in the program. Sure, she has the extra year of eligibility, but we play within the rules set forth for us and Vonny didn’t make the decision for that extra year; a deadly pandemic did for all of us.
Outside of Ejim’s amazing performance, the rest of the team put up some respectable numbers:
- Maud Huijbens dropped 15 points on 5-11 shooting, a nice bounce back that represents her first double-digit scoring game since the opener against Montana, while also adding in 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, 0 fouls, and 2 turnovers. Despite struggling with her shot thus far into the season, 38.2% from two and 18.8% from three, Maud has turned into a wonderful ball distributor. She’s currently averaging 3.3 assists, a number nearly double to her previous career high set last season and one that leads the entire team, and 2 turnovers per game, which means that her A/T ratio also leads the team. It’s an interesting wrinkle to this team and one that’s nice to see given the inexperience at the guard position, however, I hope we see Huijbens start adding more in the scoring department as the season progresses.
- Esther Little made her first appearance on Sunday since suffering a concussion (I believe) against Stanford in the second game of the season. With the emergence of Allie Turner and possibly as part of easing her back into action, Little began the game on the bench but ended up playing 19 minutes during which time she scored 6 points coming from two deep balls while also chipping in 5 rebounds and 1 assist, but she did commit 2 turnovers and 3 fouls. Despite those last two numbers, you can tell from the minute distribution that her return looks to likely send Osarobo down the pecking order as the freshman only got 7 minutes against New Mexico.
- Ines Bettencourt continued her offensive trend we saw against Rice as she scored 14 points on 5-11 shooting propelled by her 4-8 mark from deep. The rest of her numbers suggest that Ines is still struggling to consistently make her mark on the game as she dished out 4 assists, but also turned the ball over 4 times. I’ve really liked the spark that Bettencourt has shown from time to time this season so I can’t wait to watch her iron out the wrinkles and consistently help this team take the next step. Additionally, Ines had two blocks this game! Love her athleticism.
- Allie Turner’s rough patch against Rice showed its face again in Albuquerque as she could only score 4 points coming from 2-10 shooting and an 0-5 performance from beyond the arc. However, she must’ve done the small things right as Coach Fortier played the star freshman for 32 minutes, only one behind the team leader Yvonne Ejim. While Turner’s shooting numbers will obviously stick out, I’ve been quite impressed with her confidence on the floor getting to her spot, handling the ball, and making better decisions than what I might’ve expected from a true freshman. Despite this game, Allie was selected to the WCC Freshman of the Week and she’s already looking like a strong candidate for Freshman of the Year.
- Claire O’Connor showed some regression on Sunday, but still had a respectable 10 points on 3-8 shooting, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals. I tend to view Claire as a pure #2 with her scoring potential, but her involvement on the glass and the defensive end these past two games is wonderful to watch. Your shot may go streaky during and across games, but your effort in those areas can’t suffer so I have to imagine the coaching staff is quite happy with her dedication on the floor.
Sunday’s game was an interesting away match because after this journey, the Zags will be traveling to the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam that will kick off in two days. Rather than head back to Spokane, I’m fairly certain the team continued traveling East given that their twitter account posted a photo of the team visiting the MLK Center for Nonviolence in Atlanta the next day then posted another update earlier today announcing their arrival in the Virgin Islands.
Stay tuned for a Paradise Jam preview here shortly and get ready for Gonzaga’s kick-off game against Missouri State on Thursday at 5:30pm EST and unlike the New Mexico match, will be featured on ESPN+