a solid performance in game 1 followed by a gut-check in game 2 made for an eventful week for the Zags
The Gonzaga Women had a successful week at home as they won against USD 64-58 on Thursday and Pacific 68-64 on Saturday, which helped extend their current winning streak to 9 games. Let’s review how the two contests went down!
In the first matchup this week, the Zags took on the San Diego Toreros who’ve been pretty woeful this season thus far as remain winless in the WCC. It was an interesting starting lineup as Maud Huijbens was a last minute scratch due to residual concussion symptoms and Esther Little was away for personal reasons, which led to McKynnlie Dalan picking up her first start of the season at the other forward slot.
Despite their poor record, the Toreros actually played the Bulldogs pretty tight until the 7 minute mark of the first quarter when Gonzaga only held a 2 point lead. What followed next was a midrange jumper from the Minnesota transfer Dalan that kicked resulted in a 11-4 run, including 7 points from Ejim, for the Zags and allowed the first quarter to finish 21-12.
Both teams came out of the break hunting for offense as they traded baskets until the Bulldogs hit a nearly two minute scoring drought that allowed the visitors climb back within 3 points. However, the Toreros couldn’t keep up as would go on to score just 6 points across the remaining seven minutes compared to Gonzaga’s 15 points, which resulted in a halftime score of 40-28.
While a twelve point lead looks nice, I was a bit concerned to see the Zags struggle to finish the quarter strong as they chipped in just 2 points over the final 2 minutes of the second period. This lackluster performance continued into the third quarter as the gang went scoreless for two minutes, again allowing their opposition to cut the lead to 8. But, just as the last quarter, the Toreros couldn’t capitalize as they would ultimately only score 10 points in the entire quarter, which may seem bad until you realize the Bulldogs only scored 12 to keep the lead at 52-38.
This 12-10 quarter scoreline would continue in the fourth as USD couldn’t string together enough on offense while Gonzaga, namely Yvonne Ejim, kept doing just enough to secure baskets and limit their opposition on their way to victory. Overall, it was clearly an up-and-down game from terms of execution and performance, but considering that Coach Fortier’s team was down two key players in Esther and Maud, I think it was a solid performance.
In the game preview for the Pacific match that would take place two days later, I highlighted some of the performances by players like Yvonne Ejim, Allie Turner, and Claire O’Connor, but I want to highlight one other player.
McKynnlie Dalan’s boxscore may not stand out on quick review, but she played well in an unfamiliar role and a large minute share compared to other games. In her 30 minutes she contributed 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals, but the numbers here hide the details of a performance in which the sophomore played poised, made solid decisions, and seemed to be there when it mattered.
In my eyes, the 12 point victory on Thursday likely would have been much more substantial with the addition of either Esther Little or Maud Huijbens as their absences left a gaping hole in the depth chart that forced Christabel Osarobo into her largest minutes played, 12, since before conference play kicked off as well as players like Tayla Dalton and Bree Salenbien playing way out of position across stretches of this match. That kind of versatility is essential, but without the stalwart play of Yvonne Ejim keeping the galaxy centered, it could have been uglier.
Saturday’s game came against an opposition in Pacific that have been playing above their season record of 11-11 (7-5) driven by their experience, length, and physical style of play. The postgame comments from Fortier, Ejim, and Dalton highlighted their opposition’s talent and made no doubt that this would be a tough match for the Zags, which is interesting given how bad Pacific plays on the road and the humiliating defeat last time they visited Spokane.
Despite Maud Huijbens being a near start for the Bulldogs in the last match, we unfortunately didn’t get to see the Dutchwoman on the floor for this contest, but at least she was dressed in street clothes on the bench, which I think bodes well for a possible return in the next match on Thursday against St. Mary’s.
Thankfully, Esther Little was able to return for this game and she drew the start as McKynnlie Dalan retreated back to the bench alongside what looks to be the preferred starting lineup at this stage of the season with Allie Turner, Claire O’Connor, Tayla Dalton, and Yvonne Ejim joining her.
The Englishwoman’s return to the floor looked to energize the team as they burst out the gait with two three pointers from Tayla Dalton at the wing position. Pacific looked a little but shocked by the initial scoring and although they tried to keep up, the Zags looked hot as they went on to finish the first period up 23-13.
Unfortunately, this would be the high point of this match for the Bulldogs as Pacific dialed up the intensity, got into the Zags’ faces, and made some clutch shots. I also personally think they got some questionable calls by the referees which directly influenced this match in more ways than one.
In this match, Pacific out-rebounded the Bulldogs on the offensive glass 14-9, scored 34 points in the paint compared to just 22 from Gonzaga, and forced 17 turnovers leading to 24 points compared to just 13 and 11, respectively, from the Zags.
If we focus down further, after the first quarter, the Bulldogs’ performance seemed to get progressively worse on both ends of the court. If we simply take a look at the shooting, you’ll see the following splits by quarter: 7-14 (3-6), 5-10 (2-3), 6-14 (3-6), and 4-11 (1-2). And while Tayla knocked down 2 threes and Yvonne 1 three, it was really only Allie Turner making plays on the perimeter as she finished with a stat line of 22 points on 6-7 shooting from beyond the arc.
Similar to the shooting decline, you can see the same issue on turnovers as after the first period with just 1 turnover, the subsequent quarters saw 7, 5, and 4 turnovers. As highlighted above, those turnovers were also critical as they were live ball turnovers that Pacific exploited effectively and if there weren’t a few things that went the right way, we could be having a different discussion.
Some of this deterioration in play can be attributed to Yvonne Ejim’s foul trouble that plagued her basically all game and without your star player, who is also basically your only inside presence on offense, the Zags were bound to struggle. While the Bulldogs have been without Maud for 5 games and done quite well, I always felt like if Yvonne got into foul trouble or Esther wasn’t on her best footing, this team was going to struggle. To have that happen yesterday against a strong Tigers squad that I’m sure teams won’t want to face in the WCC Tournament and for the Bulldogs to escape victorious, I’ll take that.
With 8 games left in the WCC Regular Season, the Bulldogs are playing pretty good basketball and also doing it without some of their key players. Unfortunately, the back-end of this schedule should be much harder for the Zags as only LMU and Santa Clara possess conference records below .500. Thankfully, at least depending on your viewpoint, the Bulldogs don’t need to win the regular season as the chances for an at-large bid seem slim given their NET ranking of 113. This means the goal should be aiming for ending the season at either number 1 or 2 in the standings so they can secure the prolonged by for the tournament championship. I think this is reasonable, but the Bulldogs will be facing the top-end WCC teams shortly.
The next match will take place on Thursday as GU will travel down to Moraga to face St. Mary’s and try to avenge their male counterparts against the Gaels. Tip-off is currently scheduled for 6:30pm PST.