Women's Basketball Travels To No. 22 Utah

Dec. 6, 2005

2006 Gonzaga Women's Basketball Notes - Dec. 6
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2006 West Coast Conference Weekly Notes
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Game No. 10 - UTAH Saturday - Dec. 10, 2 p.m. (PST) Huntsman Center (15,000) - Salt Lake City, UT Series Record: Utah leads 3-1


GONZAGA UNIVERSITY BULLDOGS (3-6, 0-0 West Coast)F - 30 Ashley Anderson, 6-0, Sr., Enterprise, OR     (6.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.1 apg)F - 42 Stephanie Hawk, 6-3, Jr., Ontario, OR     (14.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.4 apg)F - 44 Anne Bailey, 6-0, Sr., Snohomish, WA     (11.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.4 apg)G - 21 Katy Ridenour, 5-11, Jr., Post Falls, ID     (6.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.5 apg)G - 34 Katie Prichard, 5-9, Sr., Elk, WA     (2.4 ppg, 0.9 rpg, 0.4 apg)HEAD COACH: Kelly Graves (University of New Mexico, 1988)GONZAGA RECORD: 83-75 (6th year); CAREER RECORD: 149-101 (9th year)
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH UTES (4-1, 0-0 Mountain West)F - 4 Kim Smith, 6-1, Sr., Mission, B.C.     (20.6 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.4 apg)F - 45 Jessica Perry, 6-3, So., Guelph, Ontario     (6.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 0.4 apg)C - 32 Joh-Tenna Filipe, 6-1, Fr., Salt Lake City, UT     (5.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.4 apg)G - 10 Shona Thorburn, 5-10, Sr., Hamilton, Ontario     (8.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 6.2 apg)G - 21 Julie Larson, 5-4, Sr., Logan, UT     (6.6 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.4 apg)HEAD COACH: Elaine Elliott (Boise State University, 1977)UTAH RECORD: 467-187 (23rd year); CAREER RECORD: Same

SCOUTING THE UTES: Gonzaga continues its long road swing with a Saturday afternoon contest at the University of Utah. This will be the fifth meeting between the schools with Utah holding a 3-1 series advantage. Gonzaga knocked off Utah 66-60 last season at the McCarthey Athletic Center as Anne Bailey came off the bench to score 18 against the Utes. Utah enters the week ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, marking the second time Gonzaga has faced Utah when they are nationally ranked. All-American Kim Smith leads Utah with 20.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. The Utes play Weber State University on Wednesday before Saturday's game against Gonzaga.

LONG ROAD TRIP COMING TO AN END: Gonzaga will play one more game on the road this Saturday afternoon before the Bulldogs finally get a second chance to play in front of the home crowd. Gonzaga has opened the season with 9 of its first 10 games on the road including an opening stretch of 9 games in 16 days with only one home game against Eastern Washington University squeezed in. Following the trip to Utah, Gonzaga will play three of its next five games at home starting with a Dec. 18 game against the University of Montana. San Jose State University and Portland State University also will make stops in the McCarthey Athletic Center in the coming weeks.

Stephanie Hawk was named the MVP of the Nugget Classic after scoring 36 points for the tournament.

HEAD COACH Kelly Graves: Kelly Graves is in his sixth season as the head coach at Gonzaga University having built the Bulldogs into an annual West Coast Conference contender. After winning just 5 games his first season, Graves guided the Bulldogs to their first regular-season title since 1988 last year when GU posted a 28-4 record and 14-0 mark in the WCC. It was only the second time a school has run the table in the league, Graves was an assistant coach at the University of Portland when the Pilots accomplished the feat in 1997. Graves was named the WBCA Region 8 Coach of the Year and WCC Coach of the Year as Gonzaga ran off a nation's-best 23 game win streak and earned the school's first national ranking. Graves is currently the school's career wins leader with a 83-75 record. He has twice been named the WCC Coach of the Year at Gonzaga (2003 & 2005) and boasts a 149-101 career record including 65-47 in WCC action.

BULLDOGS WIN NUGGET CLASSIC: Squeezed between a pair of road losses at Idaho and Sacramento State was a first for the Gonzaga women's program as the Bulldogs won the Nugget Classic in Reno, Nevada. The tournament win was the first in-season tournament win for the GU women's program since joining the NCAA Division I ranks in 1986. Gonzaga had posted 10 runner-up finishes over the span of 30 previous tournaments entering the Nugget Classic. Four of those 10 second place finishes have come under current head coach Kelly Graves in nine tournaments.

HAWK NAMED TOURNAMENT MVP: Junior forward Stephanie Hawk was named the John Ascuaga's Nugget Classic MVP after leading the Bulldogs to the championship win. Hawk scored a career-high 28 points on Friday night in the win over Northwestern State of Louisiana before scoring 8 points over Northern Colorado in the championship game. The 8 points ended a streak of 9 straight games in which Hawk had scored in double figures. Senior Anne Bailey was also named to the All-Tournament team after scoring 14 and 11 in the two games.

SHAKE UP IN THE STARTING LINE-UP: Gonzaga head coach Kelly Graves implemented his fourth different starting line-up of the season at the Nugget Classic as Katie Prichard became the third different starting point guard for the Bulldogs this season. With Prichard in the line-up Gonzaga has now posted a 2-1 record including a championship win at the Nugget Classic. The Bulldogs are still looking for consistency to replace junior point guard Rachel Kane who was lost for the season during the Zags exhibition game against Seattle Pacific University.

KANE HAS SUCCESSFUL SURGERY: Junior point guard Rachel Kane underwent successful surgery on Dec. 1 to reconstruct the ACL on her right knee. Kane is expected to make a full recovery and will be out until close to the start of the 2007 basketball season.

BAILEY COLLECTS FIFTH DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Gonzaga senior Anne Bailey collected her fifth double-double of her career during last week's loss at Idaho. Bailey pulled down a season-high 11 rebounds to go along with 13 points. It was the second time this season a Gonzaga player has collected a double-double, the other was Stephanie Hawk at San Jose State University to open the season.

SANTOS SCORING FROM THE LINE: Junior college transfer Simone Santos is still finding her shot on the floor after missing most of the Bulldogs fall practice with a knee injury. She has been finding other ways to score as half of her points this year have come from the free throw line. Santos currently ranks fourth on the team in scoring from the charity stripe despite missing the first two games of the season. She is currently 14-for-19 including a 6-for-7 effort on Monday night against Sacramento State. The game against the Hornets also marked her first double digit scoring effort as she poured in 10 points in the second half.

HAWK BLOCKS HER WAY ONTO THE CHARTS: Stephanie Hawk joined the Gonzaga Top 10 for blocked shots last week as she moved her career total to 58 with 8 blocks over the last four games. Hawk has 12 blocks on the to lead the West Coast Conference. Senior Anne Bailey is also on the Top 10 list for blocked shots with her 69 blocks ranking 8th on the chart.

Simone Santos has scored half her season's points from the free throw line.

BULLDOGS AND THE 3-POINTER: In the Bulldogs final home game in the Martin Centre, Gonzaga witnessed its consecutive game streak with a 3-pointer made come to an end against the University of San Francisco. That 0-for-6 performance against the Lady Dons ended a 222 game streak in which the Bulldogs had made at least one 3-pointer in a game. The streak started after the Bulldogs went 0-for-10 against the University of San Diego on Feb. 17, 1996. Gonzaga rebounded from that performance to knock down seven 3-pointers in each of its next two games and has extended its current streak to 47 games. The Bulldogs record for 3-pointers made in a game is 14 against UC Riverside on Dec. 31, 2001. Gonzaga has recorded 17 games with 10 or more 3-pointers made since the 3-point basket was incorporated into the college game including a 13 3-point performance against Santa Clara last season to open West Coast Conference play.

GU BLOCK STREAK: In addition to its current 3-point streak, Gonzaga also has a block streak of 45 games dating back to the 2004 season. In 2005 the Bulldogs had a record setting 136 blocks to shatter the previous mark of 118 set in the 2003 season. The Bulldogs had two games with 10 or more blocks including a record tying 12 blocks against Nevada. GU has blocked 10 or more shots 6 times.

BAILEY MOVES CLOSER TO 600: Senior Anne Bailey increased her career total to 541 rebounds over the Bulldogs last four games as she continues her pursuit of becoming just the 10th Gonzaga player with 600 career rebounds. Bailey joined the 500 rebound club earlier this year against the University of Maryland.

ZAGS SHARP FROM 3 AGAINST UNC: Gonzaga had its best outside shooting performance of the season against Northern Colorado in the championship game of the Nugget Classic. The Zags connected on 7-of-8 from 3-point range in the win for a .875 shooting clip. For the year Gonzaga is shooting 35 percent from long range with only two games over 50 percent this season. Katy Ridenour leads the team with 9 3-pointers this season while Jami Bjorklund has the best shooting percentage with a .438 clip on 7-of-16.

RENIUS SOLID AT THE NUGGET: Sophomore Elaina Renius put together the two most complete games of her young career during the Bulldogs championship win at the Nugget Classic. Renius scored 17 points over the two games with 14 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. She was 6-of-9 from the floor and 7-of-9 from the free throw line.

LATE BLOOMING HISTORY: With a 3-6 start to the season Gonzaga is hoping that history repeats itself as the Bulldogs enter the mid-December stretch of their schedule. Over the past three seasons Gonzaga has hit its stride in mid-December closing out each year on a strong note. The Bulldogs are 57-17 (.770) from mid-December to the end of the season over the past three years which have ended with two post-season berths and win totals of 18, 18 and 28. Only five of those 17 losses have come to non-conference foes.

Anne Bailey moved her career rebounding total to 541 over the last week.

BULLDOGS HIT A 1,000 SEASON TICKETS: Gonzaga women's basketball is on the rise in Spokane as the Bulldogs recently announced that they had surpassed the 1,000 season ticket holder number for this year. Entering last weekend Gonzaga had sold 1,112 season tickets for this year with the next home game set for Dec. 18 against Montana. Gonzaga has played at home just once this season with 1,843 fans watching the Zags knock off Eastern Washington. Last season Gonzaga led the WCC with 1,817 fans per game to rank 67th in the nation.

BULLDOGS SIGN SIX NEW PLAYERS: Gonzaga head coach Kelly Graves announced the signing of six new players that will join the Bulldogs team for the 2006-07 season. Signing national letters of intent with the Bulldogs were Janelle Bekkering, Heather Bowman, Michelle Elliott, Vivian Frieson, Simone Jordan and Tatriana Lorenzo. Bekkering is a 6-0 guard/forward at W.R. Myers High in Taber, Alberta, Canada. Bowman is a 6-2 forward from Spokane's Lewis and Clark High. Elliott is 5-11 guard from Pasco, Wash., who played two seasons at San Diego State University before attending Columbia Basin College for classes this season. Frieson is a 6-0 forward from Seattle's Garfield High. Jordan is a 5-10 guard from Franklin High in Portland. Lorenzo is a 5-7 point guard from Kamahameha High in Honolulu.

WCC TOURNAMENT COMES TO SPOKANE: The West Coast Conference Tournament will makes its first appearance in Spokane as the Bulldogs host the annual men's and women's championship on March 2-6 at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The Gonzaga women have advanced to the last two WCC Championship games losing to Loyola Marymount in 2004 at San Diego and to host Santa Clara last season.

Upcoming Events

Results

Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus 5-seed Ole Miss on March 20, 2026 , Loss , 66, to, 81

Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus WCC Championship Game vs. Oregon State on March 10, 2026 , Win , 76, to, 66

Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus WCC Championships - Semifinal vs. Santa Clara on March 9, 2026 , Win , 88, to, 60

Completed Event: Women's Basketball at Portland on February 28, 2026 , Loss , 91, to, 92 , OT

Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus Saint Mary's on February 26, 2026 , Win , 75, to, 67

Completed Event: Women's Basketball at Pacific on February 21, 2026 , Win , 85, to, 70

Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus Washington State on February 19, 2026 , Win , 75, to, 50

Completed Event: Women's Basketball at Loyola Marymount on February 14, 2026 , Loss , 63, to, 72

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