by Gonzaga Univ. athletics
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Gonzaga University women's basketball team rolled to a 77-51 victory over
Monmouth University Sunday evening in front of a near capacity crowd at the
McCarthey Athletic Center. The Bulldogs, who improved to 4-0 with the victory
and had 5,561 in attendance to witness the 26-point victory, had 12 of their 14
players score, led by junior Haiden Palmer with 14 points.
Palmer scored six of the Zags first eight points of the
contest and had 12 of her 14 in the opening 20 minutes to help Gonzaga to a
40-23 halftime advantage.
Palmer, sophomore Sunny Greinacher and senior Taelor Karr
were the ones to help break open the game in the first half as they combined for
all nine points in a crucial 9-0 run that turned a three point edge into a 10
point lead at 17-7 with 13:53 left in the first. Karr put the stamp on the run
as she drained a 3-pointer on a pass from Palmer which forced Monmouth to call a
timeout.
Gonzaga's lead ballooned to 31-15 with 6:52 remaining.
Freshman Chelsea Waters and Elle Tinkle both got into the action during this
stretch with Waters scoring four points and Tinkle sinking two free throws and
assisting on a Greinacher jumper.
Greinacher and classmate Keani Albanez chipped in eight
points each in the opening half and the Zags shot an impressive 55.6 percent
(15-of-27) from the field to claim the 17 point lead at
intermission.
A 6-2 run right out of the second half gate pushed the
Bulldogs lead over 20-points. It was junior Jazmine Redmon that gave GU the
21-point cushion at 46-25 when she picked Betsy Gadziala and scored a fast break
layup.
Gonzaga held its lead above 20 for the remainder of the
contest and grabbed its largest lead of 28 points at the 2:06 mark on a
3-pointer by senior Meghan Winters.
Sophomore point guard Maiki Viela scored seven points in the
second half for Gonzaga – a new career high, while junior Stephanie Golden
chipped in nine on 4-of-5 shooting in the final 20 minutes.
Thirteen players would go on to see action in the final 20
minutes for Gonzaga with only three playing 10 or more minutes.
"After we got a good enough lead during the second half,
after the starting group played four or five minutes we wanted to shut them
down, mainly because of our upcoming tournament," explained head coach Kelly
Graves of spreading the minutes. "We have three games in three days. We travel
most of the day Monday and then have games Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
After just playing a very physical game here Friday night, that's a lot of
basketball to ask."
Of the 14 players to see the court for GU, only two played
more than 20 minutes and all but two played over 10.
For the game, Gonzaga shot 51.7 percent (31-of-60) from the
field, held the 36-34 rebounding advantage and tallied 25 points off of
Monmouth's 21 turnovers.
The Hawks (0-3) were led by Alysha Womack with 21 points.
Gonzaga now travels to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the
Hardwood Tournament of Hope Tournament. The Bulldogs open the tournament against
Missouri State University Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. PT.
