Feb. 11, 2006

Box Score

PORTLAND - The Gonzaga University (12-13, 7-3 WCC) women's basketball team overcame a 28 percent shooting night to squeeze out a West Coast Conference road win at the University of Portland (4-19, 1-9 WCC). The Bulldogs also held Portland to just 28 percent shooting from the field as they won 46-41 for their second straight road win.

The Bulldogs defense limited Portland to just 10 first half points as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 20-10 halftime lead. The two schools combined to hit 12-of-55 shots from the floor as Ashley Anderson and Jami Bjorklund each had four first half points for Gonzaga. Rachel Warren had six of the Pilots first half total.

Gonzaga opened the second half hitting four of their first six shots as they pushed the margin to 17 points with 15:32 left. Stephanie Hawk capped the Bulldogs second half run with a lay-up as she led the Bulldogs with 10 points. Hawk just missed a double-double with 9 rebounds. Fellow low post player Anderson also narrowly missed a double-double with 10 rebounds and 9 points.

Portland climbed back into the game over the next 10 minutes taking the lead at 38-37 with 5:36 left as Whitney Grant converted a lay-up. Grant added another basket a minute later to give the Pilots a three point advantage. Hawk scored four the games next six points to give Gonzaga a two point lead with 2:04 left. Portland would miss three final 3-point attempts and Juliann Laney made two free throws to help the Bulldogs hang on.

Warren led all players with 14 points while pulling down 14 rebounds. Grant added 11 points but was limited to 5-of-25 from the floor and 0-of-9 from 3-point range.

Gonzaga returns to the McCarthey Athletic Center for its final two regular-season home games next week. The Bulldogs host first place Loyola Marymount University on Thursday night and Pepperdine University on Saturday night. Both games tip at 7 p.m. with the Pepperdine game being Senior Night for the Bulldogs four seniors. Gonzaga currently sits alone in third place in the WCC standings two games behind LMU with the Lions playing at Pepperdine later Saturday evening.