SPOKANE, Wash. -- No. 16/14 Gonzaga women's basketball used a huge surge in the fourth quarter to take the lead for good in an 83-60 win over Pepperdine and claim at least a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title on Thursday night.

Playing in front of a big home crowd, Gonzaga trailed 21-15 after the first quarter, but outscored the Waves by 29 points over the final three quarters to take the win. Zykera Rice led the way with 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting while Chandler Smith added 14 and Laura Stockton had 13 points with a team-high six assists. 
 
"They [Rice, Smith and Stockton] did a great job," head women's basketball coach Lisa Fortier said. "That's how you want it to be Senior Week."
 
Stockton opened the scoring gates for Gonzaga (26-3, 15-2 WCC) with a layup 30 second into the game, but the Bulldogs then went cold, scoring just six points over the next six minutes while Pepperdine (19-9, 12-5 WCC) put together a 17-6 run. The Waves extended their lead to as many as 10 points in the first quarter; GU finished the quarter on a 4-0 run to bring the deficit to six points, 21-15.
 
The Bulldogs extended their scoring run to open the second, converting four unanswered points to cut Pepperdine's lead to one, 21-20. Gonzaga continued to push in the second as it shot 55.6 percent from the floor and dominated the Waves in the paint, 10-4. The Zags limited Pepperdine to 13 points on 20.0 percent shooting while netting 23 second-quarter points to take a 38-34 advantage heading into the break.
 
"A big, big key for us, maybe the number one key, was to come out with intensity," Fortier said. "We got down, but I don't think we were waiting. We had intensity, we were focused, we were pushing and we were aggressive. It just took us a second to make the shots go in."
 
Pepperdine cut GU's lead to three on three different occasions in the third quarter, capitalizing on five offensive rebounds for six second-chance points. Gonzaga was able to counter with 43.8 percent shooting and a 10-2 advantage in the paint to outscore Pepperdine 19-16 and extend its lead to seven (57-50) by the end of the quarter.
 
The fourth quarter was an offensive explosion for the Zags as the Bulldogs netted 12-of-14 attempts to shoot 85.7 percent from the floor. Four different Zags finished with at least four points in the final quarter, led by Rice and Katie Campbell with five points each. Gonzaga led by as many as 25 points in the final 10 minutes and continued on for the 83-60 win.
 
"The fourth quarter, we shot 85 percent from the field," Fortier said. "We had some transition; we ran the floor, we posted up, we got it inside, we finished. It was really fun."
 
Gonzaga finished the game with a 46-18 points in the paint advantage and won the battle on the glass 43-39. The Bulldogs held Pepperdine to 30.0 percent shooting from the floor, well below its season average of 40.8 percent shooting, while holding the Waves leading scorer Yasmine Robinson-Bacote to just 11 points, 9.6 points shy of her WCC-leading 20.6 points per game.
 
Pepperdine was led by Deezha Battle with 13 points. Robinson-Bacote added 11 while Barbara Sitanggan finished with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Gonzaga closes the regular season at home Saturday afternoon against Loyola Marymount at 2 p.m. at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Seniors Rice, Smith and Stockton will all be honored pre-game in their final regular-season home game as Bulldogs.