Feb. 28, 2008

Box Score

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Sophomore Heather Bowman paced the Gonzaga University women's basketball team to an 80-71 victory over Santa Clara University Thursday evening at the Leavey Center in Santa Clara, Calif. Bowman closed out the contest with a double-double of 30 points and 11 rebounds. The Spokane native was only two points shy of tying her career-high of 32 points and also became the first player to hit 14 free throws in a contest since Feb. 20, 1985 when Maria Stack also hit 14 against Central Washington University.

The Bulldogs improved to 12-1 in West Coast Conference with the win and are now 21-7 overall. The Broncos fell to 18-10 overall and 7-6 in conference action.

Gonzaga built an eight-point advantage over Santa Clara at halftime on the strong play of both junior Jami Bjorklund and senior Michelle Elliott. Bjorklund scored a team-high nine points in the opening half on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, while Elliott had an all-around impressive first half, finishing with four points, three assists, three steals, three rebounds and one block.

The Broncos kept the game close in the first half due in large part to Jen Gottschalk who posted a team-leading 12 points. Gottschalk hit 5-of-11 from the field, including hitting 2-of-6 from beyond the three-point arc. She also bought down five rebounds and dished out five assists for SCU. Unfortunately, Gottschalk was saddled with her third foul late in the first stanza.

The Zags largest lead of the first half was 38-28 after Bjorklund hit a jumper with 50 seconds remaining before intermission. Gonzaga, who held a slight two-point advantage at 30-28, rattled off eight-straight points to hold the double-figure lead. Bjorklund scored six of the eight points while junior Elaina Renius had the other two.

It was a slow moving second half until the freshman combo of Courtney Vandersloot and Janelle Bekkering broke the game open for Gonzaga. With the Zags leading only 48-41, Vandersloot and Bekkering combined for the Bulldogs next 11 of 13 points to give GU a 61-41 advantage at 11:06.

Bekkering sank two three-pointers and hit 1-of-2 free throws, while Vandersloot hit two free throws, forced two turnovers and made a fast break layup to give Gonzaga the 20-point lead.

Santa Clara would not fold though as it rattled off a 14-4 run to cut Gonzaga's lead to 65-55 with 7:18 remaining in the contest.

The Broncos continued to pressure the Bulldogs over the final minutes, even slicing the Zags lead to only four with 2:19 left in the contest, but it was Bowman who secured the victory for GU, sinking all 10 of her free throws over the final seven minutes of the contest.

Gonzaga finished the game shooting 43.5% (27-62) from the field, including 25.0% (4-16) on three-pointers, and was 81.5% (22-27) at the charity stripe.

Santa Clara was led by Tracey Walker and Gottschalk who scored 21 and 19 points, respectively. Gottschalk also grabbed 11 rebounds in the setback.

The Bulldogs will close out their regular season slate with a game at Saint Mary's College on Saturday, March 1. Game time is set for 2 p.m.