Area roundup: Elle Tinkle, Zags handle USF

Elle Tinkle and the Gonzaga women’s basketball team continued their hot starts to West Coast Conference play with a 75-64 road win at San Francisco on Thursday night.

Tinkle made nine of her 14 shots from the field and finished with 24 points, also adding a team-high seven rebounds and three steals as the Bulldogs (11-4, 4-0 WCC) grabbed their fifth straight win and matched a season low with 11 turnovers.

Georgia Stirton chipped in 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. Sunny Greinacher and Shaniqua Nilles both scored 11 points.

After taking a 30-22 lead midway through the first half, Gonzaga fell behind after a 10-0 run by the Dons. GU responded by scoring the final 14 points of the first half to take a 44-32 lead. USF then scored the first eight points of the second half but never got closer than four points the rest of the way.

Taylor Proctor paced the Dons (9-7, 0-5 WCC) with 17 points and nine rebounds. Paige Spietz had 13 and Taj Winston added 11.

Gonzaga has now won 19 straight games over the Dons since the opening round of the 2006 WCC Tournament. It was also the 12th consecutive win at USF.

The Bulldogs travel to Santa Clara (6-8, 1-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday with another winning streak on the line. Gonzaga has won 17 straight over SCU since 2006.

Salt Lake CC 73, North Idaho 47: Raushan Gultekin scored 17 points, Tanesha Daniels added 14 points and 11 rebounds and the Bruins (14-4, 2-1 Scenic West Athletic Conference) pulled away from the Cardinals (13-5, 1-2) in Salt Lake City. Kara Staggs led the way for NIC with 24 points.

Men

Salt Lake CC 71, North Idaho 62: DeSean Parsons scored 20 points to lead four double-figures scorers as the Bruins (15-3, 3-0 Scenic West Athletic Conference) outpaced the Cardinals in Salt Lake City. Dujuan Piper led NIC (15-2, 2-1) with 12 points and Austin Pope added 11 points. Braian Angola-Rodas grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for the Cardinals.