Box Score SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University women's basketball team rolled to a 99-69 victory over Portland State University Sunday afternoon in front of its second-straight 4,000-plus crowd at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The Bulldogs, who improved to 3-1 with the victory and had 4,025 fans in attendance to witness the 30-point victory, were led by the senior tandem of Kayla Standish and Katelan Redmon who together scored 47 of GU's 99 points.
"Katelan and Kayla's performances were incredible today," explained head coach Kelly Graves after the game. "How they played individually and how they played together was phenomenal. That was our focus; get to them often and they made the baskets. It was fun to watch; they played like All-American's today."
It was the K. Redmon and Standish show in the first 20 minutes as the two combined for 32 of the Bulldogs 50 first half points, including the first 12. K. Redmon closed out the half hitting 8-of-9 from the floor and sank both free throw attempts for her team-leading 18 points. Standish drained 6-of-9 from the field and also nailed both free throw attempts for 14 points.
Along with her scoring explosion in the first half, K. Redmon became the 18th player in Gonzaga history to score 1,000 points in a Zag uniform when she hit a layup with 7:27 left in the first half, assisted by sophomore point guard Jazmine Redmon.
J. Redmon was the first player besides K. Redmon and Standish to score when she made a layup at the 15:19 mark to put GU up 16-4.
Overall six Zags scored in the opening 20 minutes. Along with K. Redmon and Standish, Gonzaga was led by freshman Keani Albanez with eight points and sophomore center Stephanie Golden who had four.
Gonzaga closed out the half hitting 22-of-36 from the field, for a stellar 61.1 percent. All 50 points came from inside the 3-point arc, as the Zags went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc. Also impressive was that GU was credited with 18 assists on the 22 baskets and only turned the ball over three times.
"It has been our trademark for a while to score most of our points inside the paint," explained Graves of scoring 50 points on 2-pointers and at the free throw line. "We have never been that big of a 3-pointer team. When we are getting good looks inside we don't need the three."
The Bulldogs opened the final half with four different players scoring, none of which were K. Redmon or Standish. Redshirt sophomore Haiden Palmer started things off with a jumper, followed by a layup by senior Kelly Bowen. Freshman forward Sunny Greinacher got into the action with a layup and Golden gave GU the 58-38 advantage with a layup of her own at 15:43.
The Zags continued to push past the Vikings, reaching a 30-point lead at the 5:33 mark on a jumper by Standish.
Gonzaga's largest lead of the contest with 33, hit three times, with the last coming with 15 seconds remaining when Albanez stole the ball from PSU's Lariel Powell and scored a fast break layup to put the score at 99-66.
Gonzaga finished with 10 of its 12 players scoring. Standish led all scorers with 25 points, while K. Redmon added 22 and has now scored 1,011 point at Gonzaga. The Zags also got double-digit outputs from Albanez (12), Golden (10) and Greinacher (10).
The Zags hit 40-of-67 (59.7%) from the field and 18-for-20 (90.0%) at the charity stripe.
GU ended the game with a season-high 29 assists, with four players passing out four or more. J. Redmon and junior Taelor Karr each had six assists.
"It is our signature to share the ball," said Graves. "That is the way we play. A lot of those were easy shots, the catch and put in shots, which was really nice. It is nice to have so any options."
Portland State, who fell to 2-3 on the year, was led by Kate Lanz with 21 points.
Gonzaga returns to action Wednesday when it plays at Washington State University for the first time in 10 years. Game is set for 8 p.m.
"That's going to be a great game," said Graves. "I've been following women's basketball in the northwest for almost 20 years and I think this is the best Washington State team I've seen. It's going to be quite a battle and we will need the Zag fans behind us."
