Vandersloot, Bulldogs run past Lady Griz
12/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Gonzaga senior Courtney Vandersloot scored 27 points and added seven assists, four steals and two blocks, all game highs, to lead the Bulldogs to an 80-62 victory over Montana Sunday afternoon at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula. It was the most lopsided loss for the Lady Griz at Dahlberg Arena since losing to Oregon State by 18 at the AIAW Region IX tournament in March 1981.
Vandersloot hit a 3-pointer midway through the first half to break a 16-16 tie and spark a 10-0 run for Gonzaga. The Zags??? lead was 44-29 at the half, and it would remain at least 10 and grow to as much as 25 in the second half.
Katelan Redmon scored 14 points and Kayla Standish and Janelle Bekkering, who combined to hit 11 of their 16 shots, both had 12-point, seven-rebound performances for Gonzaga, which improved to 6-3 and won for the fourth straight time against Montana (3-5).
Senior Stephanie Stender, who went 3 for 3 from 3-point range, was the Lady Griz??? lone double-figure scorer with 13 points.
Sophomore Katie Baker had nine points and nine rebounds, senior Sarah Ena had six points and eight rebounds.
To stay in the game, Montana needed to slow down Gonzaga???s transition offense that had the Bulldogs averaging over 82 points entering Sunday???s game.
The Lady Griz did that through the opening six minutes of the game. Montana hit five early field goals and turned it into a half-court game, taking a 14-9 lead on a jumper by sophomore Alyssa Smith.
Janelle Bekkering scored seven straight for the Bulldogs. A jumper by sophomore Kenzie De Boer evened the score at 16 with just over 11 minutes remaining.
Vandersloot came down and hit a 3-pointer, and that started Gonzaga???s first scoring burst of the game: 10 points in just over two minutes.
Vandersloot???s three was followed by a Montana miss and another Gonzaga three. Two more Montana misses followed, and the Bulldogs scored on both possessions to push the lead to 10.
???We could have had the tempo a little bit better had we been more consistent offensively,??? UM coach Robin Selvig said. ???There were stretches where we played really good basketball on offense. We were patient and we moved the ball. It was some of our best basketball of the year.
???Then we went back to taking bad shots, and that???s not a good thing to do against Gonzaga.???
Montana would fight back to within four, 28-24, and missed a pair of 3-pointers that could have cut the lead to one.
That???s when Vandersloot went from distributor to scorer and took any further suspense out of the game.
Vandersloot went 9 for 11 over the final minutes of the first half and opening minutes of the second half.
Her late 3-pointer made it 44-29 at the half, and she hit four straight shots to open the second half.
???We couldn???t contain Vandersloot. She had a great game,??? Selvig said.
Montana hung around early in the second half.
Baker hit a free throw at the 17:33 mark to pull the Lady Griz within 10, 46-36, and a jumper by Ena in the lane made it 50-38, but Vandersloot hit back-to-back jumpers and Redmon hit a three to push the lead to 19.
Montana wouldn???t get closer than 17 the rest of the game.
Gonzaga, which entered the game shooting 46.2 percent, shot 52.7 percent. Montana was right at its season percentage of .343, shooting 34.5 percent.
The Bulldogs had a 34-33 rebounding advantage.
Montana will play at Idaho (5-2) Wednesday night in Moscow, Idaho. The game tips off at 7 p.m. (MT).
