Jan. 20, 2011

Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. Sophomore Meghan Winters drained four 3-pointers and finished with a career-high 14 points to help the Gonzaga University women's basketball team defeat visiting Santa Clara University 89-53 in a West Coast Conference game Thursday evening at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Winters, who bested her previous career-high by three points, finished the game draining 5-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, of which all four made 3-pointers came in the first half, for her new career-high.

With the win, the Bulldogs improved to 16-4 overall and a perfect 4-0 in league play, while the Broncos, who are coached by former Zag player and assistant coach Jennifer Mountain, fell to 6-12 overall and 2-2 in the WCC.

All 13 players saw action for Gonzaga in the 36-point victory, including freshman Stephanie Golden who had a career-high night of her own, sinking 4-of-6 from the field and nailing 1-of-2 at the charity stripe for nine points.

"It was nice to get everybody in," explained GU head coach Kelly Graves after the contest. "Everybody had an opportunity. I thought our defense was terrific especially in the first half. It's hard sometimes to keep that intensity up which was obvious in the second half. I didn't think we did a great job but we ran 13 players in and out and that's tough to keep any continuity."

Gonzaga went into the locker room with the 53-16 advantage. The 16 points scored by the Broncos in the opening 20 was the lowest scoring output by an opponent in a half this season. The Bulldogs hit 47.8 percent (22-of-46) in the first half, had 19 points off second chance opportunities and 21 off of the Broncos 18 turnovers.

The game was tied at 4-4 early in the contest but an 11-0 run gave Gonzaga a double-digit lead at the 15:34 mark. The Bulldogs used another big run later in the half, this one a 19-0 run that spanned 8:01, to grab the insurmountable 51-14 edge with 2:59 remaining. Winters started the run with a 3-pointer and ended the run with back-to-back 3-pointers.

Santa Clara came out strong in the second half, using a 13-5 run out of the gates to slice Gonzaga's advantage to 58-29. Meagan Fulps was the catalyst during the push for the Broncos, scoring nine of the 13 points.

"We have struggled in the second half in WCC play," stated Graves. "It's an area we have got to get better at. We've been up in all four games, three by a large margin, at halftime and we haven't done a great job in the second. But the fact that we are building a 30-plus point lead in the first half is significant and that's human nature to maybe let down a little bit in the second half. We got to get better at it."

The Bulldogs did go on a 16-3 run of their own after the Broncos run to push to their lead above 40-points with 9:15 remaining.

Gonzaga's largest lead of the contest was 45, secured twice, the last coming at the 7:11 mark on a jumper by senior Claire Raap.

The Zags were led by senior Courtney Vandersloot who had a game-high 21 points. She also dished out nine assists and made five steals. Junior Kayla Standish added 18 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while classmate Katelan Redmon chipped in 10 rebounds, seven boards and four dimes.

On the game, Gonzaga shot 48.1 percent (37-of-77) from the floor, out rebounded Santa Clara 45-30 and scored 25 points off of the Broncos 23 turnovers.

SCU was led by Ashley Armstrong with 15 points.

Gonzaga returns to action Saturday when it hosts the University of San Francisco. Game time is set for 2 p.m.

"It's going to be a good game," said Graves about GU's game against USF Saturday. "I think they have talent and athletic ability. I think Coach (Jennifer) Azzi's going to do a good job with them. I anticipate they are going to play hard. We're going to have to play well but if we play like we did tonight and defend well I think we will be fine."