Nov. 19, 2009

Box Score

Coach Graves Postgame Interview

SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University women's basketball team opened its 2009-10 home slate in spectacular fashion as it defeated Pacific-10 Conference member University of Southern California 70-58 Thursday evening at the McCarthey Athletic Center in front of 3,206 Bulldog faithful. Senior Vivian Frieson had a break out game for the Zags, scoring 22 points, grabbing nine rebounds, blocking three shots and dishing out three assists to help improve GU's record to 2-1 on the year. USC fell to 1-2 with the 12-point setback.

"I am really proud of everybody tonight," explained head coach Kelly Graves after the contest. "Especially Vivian, who didn't have a career night but had one of her better nights as a Zag. She was huge for us in the first half and that's when we needed her."

It was Frieson who single handedly turned a tight game early in the first half into a sizable lead. With Gonzaga holding a slight 13-12 lead at 13:26 mark, Frieson went on a tear, scoring 10 of the Bulldogs next 14 points, including the final eight in their 14-3 run, to break open a 12-point lead at 27-15 with 3:15 left before halftime. Frieson, who hit three jumpers and had two layups, also grabbed three rebounds, blocked one shot and made one steal during the important run for Gonzaga.

The Trojans were able to get within 10 points of the Bulldogs lead at 31-21 late in the half but a last second 3-pointer by Frieson gave Gonzaga the 13 point advantage at halftime.

Frieson finished with 17 points in the opening half, hitting 8-of-11 from the field and also added seven rebounds in 16 minutes of action. As a team GU hit 38.1 percent from the floor (16-of-42), including 22.2 percent (2-of-9) from beyond the 3-point arc.

The Trojans were held to just 25.8 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes, hitting 8-of-31 from the field.

Gonzaga also outrebounded USC 27-22; including grabbing 11 offensive boards, and forced the Trojans to turn the ball over 11 times, which the Bulldogs turned into 10 points for themselves.

"I thought in the first half we did about as well as we could do defensively," stated Graves. "We showed great ability to play good team defense."

The Trojans came out of halftime scoring the first four points to cut the Bulldogs lead to single digits at 34-25, but the Zags were not fazed as they put together a 22-9 run over the next nine minutes to capture their then-largest lead of the contest at 22 points (56-34) with 9:36 remaining in the game. Senior Tiffanie Shives hit two big 3-pointers during the outburst, while sophomore Kayla Standish scored the final six points of the run for GU.

Gonzaga held its lead above 20, earning a 23-point lead three times, until Southern California scored eight-straight points in the last 1:14 to put the final score at 70-58.

As a team, the Bulldogs finished the contest sinking 42.5 percent (31-of-73) from the floor, 29.4 percent of their shots from 3-point range (5-of-17) and were 37.5 percent (3-for-8) at the charity stripe.

Besides Frieson, three other GU players scored in double-figures. Senior Heather Bowman added 13 points, along with six boards, junior point guard Courtney Vandersloot had 11 points, along with seven assists and six boards and sophomore Katelan Redmon chipped in 10 points, with seven rebounds.

USC, who finished the game shooting 29.2 percent (19-of-65) from the field, was led by Ashley Corral and Christina Marinacci who had 23 and 12 points, respectively. Gonzaga finished the game with the slight 47-45 edge in rebounds.

The Bulldogs play their second-straight Pac-10 school when they welcome in-state rival University of Washington to the McCarthey Athletic Center Sunday. Game time is set for 2 p.m.