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Bulldogs Open Season With 101-44 Victory
Nov. 14, 2008
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University women's basketball team opened its 2008-09 regular season off with a bang, earning a 101-44 victory over Eastern Oregon University Friday evening in front of a opening day record crowd of 2,418; also the eighth highest attended Bulldog game in school history. "It was great to get a win in front of our home crowd," said head coach Kelly Graves. "Spokane has always shown great support for us and they provided a great atmosphere tonight." With the win the Zags improved to 1-0 on the season and are now 7-0 in home openers, while the Mountaineers dropped to 1-1 on the season. Eastern Oregon was sharp early on, taking a 7-4 lead at the 17:40 mark of the first half after a jumper by Alyssa Garro. Gonzaga started to settle down offensively and ramped up its defensive pressure though with an 11-0 run to take a 15-7 advantage. The Bulldogs never let the Mountaineers back into the game, building their lead to 26 at halftime after sophomore Courtney Vandersloot scored two of her 15 first half points with time remaining to put the score at 48-22. "We used our defense to jump start our offense tonight," explained Graves." We dialed up our defensive pressure and used that to ignite our offense." The Bulldogs continued to roll in the second half, scoring 25 points, while limiting the Mountaineers to just 10 in the opening eight minutes, to push their lead to 43. Vandersloot, who scored a career-high 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting, had 10 of GU's 25 points over this period. "Courtney stepped up for us tonight; we are going to need everybody to step up while Heather Bowman is out," stated Graves after the contest. " Tonight it was Courtney's turn. She had a very impressive night for us, she ran the fast break, she controlled the offense and played solid defense."
Gonzaga's largest lead of the game was 59, acquired after freshman Shannon Reader, who was one of 10 Zags to score in the game, hit a jumper to push their point total over 100; only the third time in Graves' tenure at the helm. The Zags shot 46.2 percent in the first half on 18-for-39 and finished at 55.4 percent on 41-for-74 after shooting a sizzling 65.7 percent in the second half. Eastern Oregon shot 36.5 percent in the first half on 8-for-22, and then shot a respectable 44.0 percent in the second half on 11-of-25. Besides Vandersloot, who also dished out a game-high eight assists, the Bulldogs had three other players score in double-digits. Freshman Kayla Standish had 16, along with five rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals, while sophomore Janelle Bekkering added 12 points and five rebounds. Senior Jami Shaefer was the final Gonzaga player to score in double-figures, finishing the contest with ten. Gonzaga won the battle of the boards easily 46-18. The Zags had more offensive boards than the Mountaineers had total rebounds, finishing with 21. Eastern Oregon only scored seven points on Bulldog turnovers and did not have any second chance points or fast break points. Gonzaga hits the road for its next contest, playing at the University of Washington on Sunday, Nov. 16. Game is set to tip at 2 p.m. |
