Color Scheme

Subscribe now
Gonzaga Women's Basketball

Gonzaga women’s basketball to open Bahamas tournament with Louisville

Gonzaga guard Kayleigh Truong (11) shoots a 3 against BYU during the second half of the Women’s WCC Championship basketball game on March 8, 2022, at the Orleans in Las Vegas. Gonzaga won the game 71-59. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Allen For The Spokesman-Review

The Gonzaga women will get a chance at some payback in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

On Nov. 19 in Paradise Island, Bahamas, the Zags will tip off against Louisville, the program that ended their season last March in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The three-day tournament is the second in as many years for Gonzaga, which journeyed to Hawaii last year and swept Utah, Eastern Illinois and Utah in the Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Honolulu.

The Zags went on to post a 27-7 record that included the West Coast Conference Tournament title and an opening-round NCAA win over Nebraska.

Two nights later, host Louisville beat the Zags 68-59 in front of a crowd of more than 10,000. That Cardinals team finished 29-5, falling in the national semifinals to eventual NCAA champion South Carolina.

Louisville loses three starters from that team but returns leading scorer Hailey Van Lith, a junior guard from Cashmere, Washington.

GU returns only one starter in point guard Kaleigh Truong, but also brings back experienced backups Kaylynne Truong and Yvonne Ejim.

Texas and Marquette are also in GU’s half of the bracket. Last year, Texas reached the Elite Eight before losing to Stanford at Spokane Arena.

The other side of the bracket includes Tennessee, Rutgers, South Dakota State and UCLA. All four programs played in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

GU opens practice Sept. 26 and opens play with an exhibition game Nov. 4 in the Kennel against Western Washington. The regular season begins Nov. 10 against Long Beach State.