Nov. 28, 2010

Box Score

HONOLULU, Hawai'i - The two most important points junior Katelan Redmon scored in the Gonzaga University women's basketball game versus Washington State University came with 5.7 seconds left in the contest Sunday. Redmon, who finished with a game-high 22 points, calmly sank two free throws with the game tied at 65 to lift the Bulldogs to a 67-65 win over the Cougars on the final day of the Waikiki Marriot Beach Resort Rainbow Wahine Showdown, hosted by the University of Hawaii.

The Bulldogs finished the tournament with a 2-1 record and improved their overall mark to 4-3. The Cougs dropped their record to 1-6 overall and closed out the tournament at 1-2.

The game came down to the final 1:03 of the contest. Gonzaga took a 3-point cushion at the 1:03 mark on a layup by junior Kayla Standish, who received the pass from Redmon; one of her six assists in the contest.

Washington State missed its first 3-point attempt to tie the game - by April Cook with 34 seconds left, but the Cougs grabbed the offensive rebound and WSU head coach June Daugherty called a timeout to regroup her squad with 21 seconds remaining. Then, with a hand in her face, Ireti Amojo drained a 3-pointer, her second of the game, with 10 ticks left, to knot the game at 65.

Senior Courtney Vandersloot drove the length of the court and found Redmon on the baseline. She tried to do a reverse layup by was fouled by Carly Noyes on the play, which put her on the free throw line for the fateful free throws.

Washington State did have time for a shot but its inbound pass to half court was picked off by Standish.

Redmon dominated the first half for the Bulldogs as well, finishing with a team-high 13 points. She scored seven of the Zags first 14 points of the contest to help GU claim their largest lead of the contest; a 14-8 advantage at the 8:38 mark.

It was the Cougs Jazmine Perkins who swayed the momentum back towards the Washington State side, scoring eight straight points, including 3-straight layups, to take the lead from Gonzaga at 22-18 with 6:30 remaining before halftime.

Twelve of Washington State's final 14 points of the half came from beyond the 3-point arc as April Cook, Hana Potter, Amojo and finally Sage Romberg each drained a 3-pointer to help the Cougs go into the locker room with the 36-32 advantage.

The Cougars held the lead until the 11:31 mark of the second half when GU's Claire Rapp hit a jumper to put the Zags up one at 51-50.

The final 10 minutes saw six lead changes and three ties. Gonzaga finally took the lead for good on a layup by Vandersloot, after a steal by Redmon, with 2:48 left.

Besides Redmon, the Bulldogs were led by senior Janelle Bekkering and Vandersloot with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Standish was one point shy of a double-double, scoring nine points and grabbing 10 boards.

Gonzaga shot 41.3 percent (22-of-63) from the field, 15.8 percent (3-of-19) on 3-pointers and was a subpar 57.1 percent (12-of-21) at the free throw line.

Washington State was led by Perkins with 14 points in 18 minutes of action. The Cougs shot 41.0 percent (25-of-61) from the floor and sank 6-of-18 3-pointers.

Gonzaga, who just played five games in eight days, will have a few days rest before playing at Eastern Washington University Friday at 7 p.m.