Gonzaga women rout Loyola Marymount, celebrate seniors at final regular season game
They won the game easily enough. Then the Gonzaga seniors blew away the crowd.
After a roller-coaster season for the Zags women, Senior Day at the Kennel was bound to pack a lot of emotion.
And so it did.
From Saturday’s pregame introductions to the tearful goodbyes, five departing players left in style.
Moments after beating Loyola Marymount 83-62, the players gathered in a circle at midcourt, their arms draped over the shoulders of teammates.
Then the five seniors seized the moment just as they had taken over the game.
Abby O’Connor went first. A Midwesterner who had never seen the Kennel before transferring two years ago, she thanked the band, the coaches and mostly the fans.
“You guys make it so fun to play here,” O’Connor told a crowd of more than 3,000.
Anamaria Virjoghe offered heartfelt appreciation to her teammates and the coaches – especially Craig Fortier, “because you really believed in me.”
Virjoghe also reached out to her parents in Romania, who couldn’t make the trip but watched via livestream.
“I know they’re watching right now,” Virjoghe said.
Guard Cierra Walker had already lit the place up during the game, hitting eight 3-point shots in just 11 attempts.
The crowd appreciated that too, but Walker returned the favor after the game.
“What’s up, Kennel?” Walker said. “You’ve been amazing, the energy here is just electric. Go Zags.”
Kylee Griffen recalled that during a recruiting visit to the Kennel, “I knew I wanted to play right here.”
Kept off the court by several serious injuries, Griffen offered thanks to the coaches and trainers for making a difficult path easier.
“Thank you for helping me get through the battles,” Griffen said.
Then Griffen handed the microphone to Melody Kempton, who began to cry before the first words came out of her mouth.
With dozens of fans from her hometown of Post Falls in the crowd, Kempton struggled to get the words out, but was able to thank family and friends.
Like Virjoghe, she turned to Fortier and shared with the crowd “the number of hours this man put in to my game, to make me a better player and a better person.”
Finally, Kempton capped the day by telling her teammates that “this has been the best year it could have been.”
With that, the seniors posed for photographers with coach Lisa Fortier, waved to the remaining fans and ran to the locker room.
The only thing missing was a net-cutting ceremony, a Senior Day tradition at GU. The Zags finished 15-2 in the West Coast Conference, but BYU went 15-1 to take the regular-season title.
Looking back on the season and her senior class after the game, Lisa Fortier called it “a roller-coaster of a season.”
“They’ve endured a lot,” Fortier said without going into details.
She didn’t have to. The pandemic depressed fan turnout. The Zags blew double-digit leads in four games, including a crucial home loss to BYU.
And yet they persevered. Closing with three straight wins, the Zags are 24-6 overall and are in peak form.
Their next stop is the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, where they will play in the WCC semifinals on March 7.
Experts believe GU has the inside track for an at-large berth should they fall short in Vegas, but the players wouldn’t hear of it.
“There’s only one way to make sure, and that’s to take care of business in Las Vegas,” Kempton said.
The Zags had no trouble doing that on Saturday against ninth-place LMU (9-18, 4-13).
Less than 6 minutes into the game, Walker drained her third 3-pointer to put the Zags up 19-6, and the lead grew from there.
GU took a 28-point lead late in the half before settling for a 49-24 advantage at halftime.
The lead hit 30 before LMU rallied and got within 20 on several occasions in the fourth quarter.
Led by Walker’s game-high 24 points, four Zags scored in double figures. Virjoghe had 12 while hitting 4 of 5 shots; Kempton had 10 points, seven boards and five assists; and Eliza Hollingsworth had 10 points.
For the game, GU shot almost 50%, going 31 for 63, and held LMU to 40%.