Jan. 30, 2010

Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. - It was another history making afternoon for the Gonzaga University women's basketball team as senior Heather Bowman became the Bulldog all-time leading scorer in its 93-53 victory over the University of San Francisco. Bowman went into the contest needing five points to surpass Tammy Tibbles mark of 2,011 points scored and with 7:03 left in the first half she made a layup to break the elusive 22-year record. Bowman finished the contest with 11 points to increase her new leading total to 2,018.

"We knew Heather would be a great player but you can't envision this," said head coach Kelly Graves after the contest. "She has scored a lot of points, a lot. Her key has been consistency; she has never been to high or low. She's always producing and is just an unbelievable player and a great teammate and person."

Bowman also became just the fourth player at Gonzaga, man or woman, to score 2,000-plus points in their career. Besides Tibbles, who collected her 2,011 points from 1984-88, Frank Burgess and Jim McPhee are the lone Zag men to top 2,000. Burgess is the all-time leading scorer for the men at 2,196 points, scored from 1959-61, and McPhee finished with 2,015 from 1986-00.

"It was a special night today and was made even more special having Tammy here to celebrate this moment with us," stated Graves. "I was glad we recognized her after the contest because she is an important part of our program's history."

It was a rocky start for Gonzaga, who improved to 18-4 overall and a 7-0 in West Coast Conference action. The Bulldogs did not break the contest open, like they have been doing in league play this year, until early in the second half.

Gonzaga went into the locker room up 13 at 42-29 but San Francisco opened the second half with a 9-4 spurt to shock the Bulldogs and cut their lead to just six, 46-40, with 17:07 left in the contest.

"San Francisco played us pretty tough today," said Graves. "In the end, our depth and athleticism added up."

Depth and athleticism did add up as the Zags turned their slight single-digit lead into a 40-point advantage in the blink of an eye. After San Francisco's Brittany Brumfield drained a 3-pointer at 13:18 to make the score 58-46, the Dons would not score again until the 2:55 mark. Gonzaga rattled off 29-straight points, hitting 10-of-18 from the field and sinking 7-of-9 at the charity strip, to break open a 41-point advantage at 87-46. Seven players scored for Gonzaga during the rush, including junior Janelle Bekkering and sophomore Kayla Standish who each tallied eight points.

The Dons missed 11 shots during this span and turned the ball over eight times.

"Anytime we can create offense off our defense we are at our best," said Graves of his team, who scored nine points off of the Dons eight turnovers. "Turnovers lead to easy baskets and we were able to get things going with our defense. We focused on help defense and rotation and then dialed up the pressure, which seemed to work great."

Gonzaga closed out the game with five players scoring in double-figures, including four starters. Junior Courtney Vandersloot collected her eighth double-double of the season, scoring 20 points and dishing out 11 assists; both game-highs. Bekkering and Standish, who came off the bench to play 22 minutes, added 15 points apiece, while senior Tiffanie Shives had 13 and Bowman contributed her 11.

The Bulldogs hit 55.4 percent (36-65) of their shots, including 30.0 percent (3-of-10) on 3-pointers, and were72.0 percent (18-of-25) at the free throw line. GU scored 58 of their points in the paint, scored 28 points off of turnovers and had 12 fast break points.

The Dons were led by Rheina Ale, despite fouling out at the 15:27 mark of the second half. Ale finished with 12 points.

San Francisco hit just 33.0 percent (20-of-59) from the floor. Gonzaga starts the second half of WCC play at the University of Portland next Saturday. Game time is set to begin at 2 p.m.