Gonzaga WBB Dismantles Oregon State at Home in Statement 67-37 Win
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Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Ines Bettencourt (8) celebrates a made three-pointer in a 67-37 win over the Oregon State Beavers at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Credit: Gonzaga Athletics/Instagram [/caption]
SPOKANE, Wash. – Two weeks ago, Gonzaga women’s basketball (17-7, 9-2) lost a narrow overtime battle to Oregon State on the road, falling to one of the newest programs added to the WCC for the third time in four games. In these matchups, the victorious team had not won by more than five points and two of the contests went to overtime.
Safely put, these two programs displayed they are about as close to each other as can be. Or at least they have been.
Fast forward 14 days, and the Bulldogs laid a 67-37 beatdown on the Beavers (17-6, 9-2) back at the McCarthey Athletic Center, a convincing way for the Zags to pull into a tie with OSU for first place in the conference.
With Oregon State slightly having their number of late, the Bulldogs knew a level of intensity was needed to get over the hump and pull out a victory. But instead of barely doing that, GU leaped over the hump.
“Against Oregon State, it’s always a great game to be playing in, and it’s personal,” senior guard Inês Bettencourt said. “Just gotta bring it.”
Bettencourt embodied that belief, as she was visibly and verbally confident in the early goings of the game and maintained that quota throughout. She tied for the team lead in scoring with 15 points on five made threes, draining four of them in the opening quarter. After Lauren Whittaker dropped 37 on OSU not long ago, the Beavers allocated extra attention to the freshman forward, giving sizable space to the Zags’ shooters on the perimeter for Whittaker to whip passes to. Not hesitating, Bettencourt quickly took her open shots when given catch-and-shoot chances, holding her follow through as the ball swished through the nets.
“They try to sag off some players, and I’m like ‘we just got to be confident’,” she said.
But overall, it was one of Gonzaga’s more forgettable offensive outputs on the season. They shot just 31% from the field and 23% from beyond the arc, a paltry mark from the best three-point shooting team in the WCC. Sophomore guard Allie Turner was held without a made field goal for the first time in her career. Starter Zeryhia Aokuso even missed several stretches of action due to injuring her ankle.
But one of the Bulldogs’ main bugaboos over the course of the season has been turning the ball over, and in their biggest game to this point, GU had a season-low seven turnovers, all while forcing 20 turnovers from the Beavers, who are usually pristine with ball security. This statistical shift was in some parts intentional, as the Zags set out in pregame preparation to be tougher, both mentally and physically.
“I think our team battling through with a lot of different – you’re being screened, they’re big inside, they’re switching. They are athletic and they’re strong and they shoot it…” head coach Lisa Fortier explained. “There was nothing that was easy for the other team…In my mind, all those things are about being tough.”
With the large discrepancy in turnovers, Gonzaga took 24 more shots than OSU, making a significant difference even while posting their least-efficient shooting night of the season. And when Oregon State did get a shot off, the Bulldogs were extremely stout in their coverages. The Beavers shot just 13-of-53 (25%) from the floor, and missed their first 16 tries from three, finishing an abysmal 1-for-21 from distance.
Oregon State’s offensive operation seemed to worsen over time, leading its head coach Scott Rueck to pull his starters midway through the third quarter, winding into the Beavers’ lowest point total of the year.
It was still a productive night for the Zags’ bigs, as Whittaker posted her twelfth double-double (15 points, 12 rebounds) while Taylor Smith (12 points, five rebounds) and Jaiden Haile (eight points, 10 rebounds) also logged solid outings. GU was beating the drum of getting to mid-range jumpers, primarily taken by those latter two forwards in the short post, and found success with moving the ball around to eventually get to those looks.
A scarce turnover game from the Bulldogs showed how dangerous they can truly be, even against their biggest competition in the conference with a terrible shooting performance. Now the challenge will be to replicate it over the next month, with a rubber match against the Beavers likely on the horizon in the conference tournament.
