Gonzaga Women Wrap-Up Road Stretch
12/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2015
GONZAGA BULLDOGS (9-4, 1-0) AT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT LIONS (5-7, 1-0)
GAME 14 | DEC. 23 | 1 P.M. | GERSTEN PAVILION | LOS ANGELES, CA
SERIES: Gonzaga leads the series 40-21 (16-14 in Los Angeles)
FIRST MEETING: Dec. 31, 1984: 100-78 in Los Angeles
LAST MEETING: March 6, 2015: 70-50 in Las Vegas
LIVE VIDEO: GoZags.com
LIVE RADIO: Toyota Gonzaga IMG - Fox Sports 790 KJRB (Play-by-Play: Steve Myklebust)
LIVE STATS: GoZags.com
GU WRAPS UP ROAD STRETCH AT LMU
- Gonzaga concludes a five-game road stretch that has covered 7,725 miles at Loyola Marymount Wednesday.
- The Zags have been in four different states during the five-game road stretch.
- The Bulldogs opened West Coast Conference play with a win at Pepperdine Monday.
- GU has a seven-day break for the holidays following the game with LMU, before matching up with San Francisco on Dec. 31.
GONZAGA STORYLINES
- Shelby Cheslek needs one block to own the program's career block record. She currently is tied for the most at 176.
- The senior is 18th in the nation with 28 blocks already this season, and her 2.15 per game ranks 47th in the country.
- Cheslek is second in the WCC and 20th in the country with 116 total rebounds.
- The Bulldogs are 21st in the country with 61 total blocks. Their 4.7 blocks per game average tops the West Coast Conference and are 72nd in the country.
- Gonzaga is holding opponents to 54.0 points per game, which leads the West Coast Conference and is 24th in the nation.
- The Zags are holding opponents to 26.6 percent from behind-the-arc, which is second in the WCC and 50th in the country.
- Under Head Coach Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga is 28-0 when it scores at least 70 points and 8-12 when it does not.
- Under Fortier, GU is 32-4 when it leads at half and is 34-2 when shooting a higher field goal percentage than its opponent.
ABOUT THE LIONS
- Wednesday's game is the third over a five-day span for Loyola Marymount (win over Bristol on Saturday).
- The Lions opened West Coast Conference play with a 62-52 win at home over Portland Monday.
- LMU is 11th in the nation with 192 made free-throws. It is making 69.8 percent from the line this season.
- Sophie Taylor leads Loyola Marymount averaging 13.5 points per game, which is 11th in the conference.
- Taylor is adding 1.9 steals and 7.6 rebounds per outing, while teammate Bree Alford is grabbing 8.3 rebounds.
- Cheyanne Wallace is second in the WCC averaging 1.7 blocks per contest. She is contributing 13.1 points per game.
- Andee Velasco is dishing out a team-high 3.9 assists per game, which is second in the West Coast Conference.
- Deanna Johnson leads the conference shooting 89.7 percent from the free-throw line (18th in the nation).
SERIES HISTORY
- Wednesday's meeting is the 62nd all-time meeting between the programs and the third in 2015.
- The Zags have won the last 16 meetings, dating back to a 75-60 LMU win in Los Angeles in 2008.
- Gonzaga has won eight straight at Loyola Marymount, dating back to the 2008 loss.
- Last season's 20th Bulldog win came at LMU. Georgia Stirton scored a career-high 17 points, making three three-pointers.
FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
- Freshmen Jill Barta, Zykera Rice, Laura Stockton and Zhané Templeton have combined for 84 of Gonzaga's 154 points over the past two games, which is 55 percent of the team's scoring.
- The quartet totaled 46 points in the win at Colgate before netting 38 at Pepperdine.
- Templeton has 29 points in the last two games, while Barta has 26. Stockton has 11 assists over the last two.
WILD WILD WEST COAST CONFERENCE
- Entering West Coast Conference play, seven of the member schools had won at least 63 percent of their games.
- All seven of those schools entered WCC action on multiple game winning streaks.
- All seven of those schools are currently top-150 RPI teams, with four being top-70.
- BYU (11), St. Mary's (34), Santa Clara (43), Gonzaga (63), and San Diego (109) top the WCC in the RPI.
- With wins Wednesday, Gonzaga and San Francisco can become the fourth and fifth teams with 10 wins already.
TAKING A LOOK AT THE OVERALL PICTURE
- The Bulldogs' four losses were all to teams with winning records.
- In fact, the overall combined record of the four teams that beat GU is currently 36-9 (.800).
- With the exception of the Stanford loss, which Gonzaga was leading with 5:29 remaining, the other three losses were all single-digit decisions by a combined 16 points.
- In the RPI, the four setbacks are Stanford (2), USC (4), Washington State (41), and North Carolina (126).
- Gonzaga's best wins in the non-conference slate came at Dayton (14) and at home over West Virginia (47).
WELCOME BACK SHAQ
- Shaniqua Nilles returned to the Zags' lineup Monday in the win at Pepperdine.
- She played 10 minutes, scoring two points on 1-of-4 shooting from the field. She added a rebound and an assist.
- The senior missed the first 12 games of the season following a knee injury.
- Nilles appeared in all 34 games and averaged 5.1 points and 2.7 rebounds per game last season.
WOLFRAM OUT FOR SEASON
- Emma Wolfram will be out for the remainder of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
- The redshirt sophomore suffered the injury during a practice.
- After fighting back from a shoulder injury, Wolfram appeared in only one game this season for the Zags.
- The Kamloops, B.C. native, scored two points and made a block in eight minutes versus Montana State.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
- Shelby Cheslek recorded her 13th career double-double at Colgate (11 points, 11 rebounds).
- The senior has four double-doubles already this season after having four in 2014-15.
- She has scored double-digits and grabbed nine rebounds in two games this season.
- Her first career double-double was an 11-point and 11-rebound performance at LMU on Feb. 9, 2013.
- Teammate Kiara Kudron also has two double-doubles this season.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
- Gonzaga currently leads the West Coast Conference with a 54.0 scoring defense (24th in the nation), and blocks per game at 4.7 (72nd in the nation).
- The Bulldogs are second in the WCC in three-point field goal percentage defense at 26.6 (50th in the country), and second in the field goal percentage defense at 35.5 (48th in the country).
IT'S A BLOCK PARTY
- Last season's GU team broke the program record with 184 blocks in a season.
- This season's team has 61 through the first 13 games, including 11 blocks in the win over West Virginia, which is fourth on the program's all-time single game list. It was also the most since the record was broken with 16 against Saint Mary's in 2010.
- Shelby Cheslek is on pace to contend with the single season program record of 77 set by Stephanie Hawk in 2006-07.
CHASING MILESTONES
- Cheslek is tied for first in program history with 176 career blocks, one away from owning the record.
- The senior moved into the West Coast Conference's all-time top-10 in 10th currently.
- She is also sixth in GU history with 767 rebounds.
JANUARY IS A GOOD TIME FOR THE ZAGS
- Gonzaga has won 20 straight games in the month of January, dating back to a 54-51 loss at Saint Mary's on Jan. 10, 2013.
- The Zags went unbeaten in January last season and in 2014.
- In the past 10 seasons, GU has won 68 of the last 70 games (.971) in January, with both losses coming to SMC.
- From 2006 to 2012, the Bulldogs won 44 straight games in January.
PACKING THE MAC
- Gonzaga is eighth in the nation in accumulative attendance with 44,123 fans in the first eight home games.
- The Zags' 5,515 average fans per game ranks 13th in the country.
- The Bulldogs are also third in the NCAA filling the 6,000-seat McCarthey Athletic Center to 91.92 percent.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's BasketballCenter
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Center
/ Women's BasketballThursday, March 28
Monday, March 25
Sunday, March 24
Saturday, March 23
