Jan. 8, 2011

Box Score

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Gonzaga University women's basketball team opened West Coast Conference play with a 81-55 victory over the University of Portland at the Chiles Center Saturday. The Bulldogs, who improved their record to 13-4 overall, were led by the reigning WCC Player of the Month Kayla Standish who recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

The Pilots fell to 9-7 with the loss and have now lost four-straight.

It was Standish and junior Katelan Redmon who bullied Gonzaga to its 42-21 halftime advantage, both finishing the half with 13 points apiece. Standish drained 6-of-11 from the field and sank all three free throw attempts, while Redmon hit 6-of-9 from the floor, including one 3-pointer. The junior tandem also accounted for 11 of the Bulldogs 22 rebounds and five of their nine assists.

Standish and Redmon were crucial in Gonzaga finally breaking away from the Pilots in the first half. With the Zags up just 12-9 at the 12:35 mark, the duo combined for 13 of the Zags 15 points in their 15-6 run that pushed their lead above double-digits at 27-15.

Standish and Redmon also scored 11 of the Zags final 15 points to push their halftime edge to 21 points.

Gonzaga closed out the half hitting 45.9 percent of its shots (17-of-37), 50.0 percent beyond the 3-point arc (2-of-4) and was a perfect 6-of-6 at the charity stripe.

Portland hit just nine field goals in the opening 20 minutes, held to 9-of-33 accuracy. Lauren Angel came off the bench to lead the Pilots with 10 points. The Bulldogs opened the second half scoring the first seven points and gained a 30-point edge at 60-30 on a layup by Redmon, assisted by senior Courtney Vandersloot at the 14:47 mark.

Gonzaga continued to roll and grabbed its largest lead of the contest was 39 points at 75-36 on a layup by Standish at the 8:51 mark.

All 13 players saw action for the Bulldogs, including junior Shannon Reader who came back from a five game hiatus due to a knee injury to score three points and grab two boards in 10 minutes of action.

Vandersloot was the game's leading scorer with 22 points. She hit 6-of-13 from the floor and sank a perfect 10-of-10 at the charity stripe. Redmon added three points in the second half to close out the game with 16 points. She also added eight boards

The Bulldogs finished the game hitting 46.2 percent (30-of-65) from the field and 79.2 percent (19-of-24) at the charity stripe. They scored 31 points off of the Pilots 23 turnovers and held the 44-35 edge in rebounding.

Portland was led by Angel and Alexis Byrd with 18 and 13 points, respectively. The Pilots finished the game hitting 18-of-58 from the field (31.0 percent) and had 42 of their 55 points scored from their bench players.

Gonzaga returns to WCC action Thursday when it plays at Pepperdine University. Game time is set for 6 p.m. and can be seen on CBS College Sports.