Gonzaga point guard Kaylynne Truong making strong case for WCC Player of the Year

She’d rather be playing alongside her sister, but Gonzaga senior point guard Kaylynne Truong may have played herself into the favorite for West Coast Conference Player of the Year.

With only four games left, the Zags are 23-3 overall, ranked 20th in the nation and hold a one-game lead in the WCC.

No one has done more to keep that momentum going than Truong.

Truong’s all-around numbers are better than what former Zags player Jill Townsend put up in the 2019-20 season, when she led GU to a WCC title, and better in several key categories.

Through 26 games, Truong is averaging 16.3 points a game, which is sixth in the conference and slightly below teammate Yvonne Ejim’s 16.7. In conference games only, Truong ranks second at 18.4 ppg and is the WCC’s top 3-point shooter at 46.7% – even better than Brynna Maxwell’s 45.2.

The conference’s top playmaker, Truong is averaging 5.3 assists.

She also gets three rebounds per game.

Truong has done that while playing the biggest minutes of any Zag in recent memory. For the season, she’s averaged 32.5 minutes, but the burden has fallen even heavier as injuries mount.

In the past 10 games, Truong has averaged 35 minutes on the court.

“I’m really proud of her,” GU coach Lisa Fortier said Saturday, shortly after Truong scored her 1,000th career point at GU.

“She knows that our team relies on her, but she’s OK with having the weight of that on her,” Fortier said.

And if the Zags finish first?

“I’ve always thought (the MVP) should go the best player on the best team,” Fortier said after the Zags beat Portland to take sole possession of first place.

“I think they wear a Zag uniform, though I’m not sure which one,” said Fortier, who also has relied heavily on Ejim and Maxwell during this injury-plagued season.

But no one has carried a bigger load than Truong, who came off the bench last year before moving into the starting lineup alongside twin sister Kayleigh.

Four games into the season, Kayleigh went down with a foot injury; it was the first of several major injuries absorbed by the Zags.

“She’s been the person leading us through all this mess that we’ve had, all these injuries and all this grind,” Fortier said of Kaylynne.

There are only two other strong candidates.

Lauren Gustin of BYU is averaging 16 points and leads the nation in rebounding with 16.5 per game. She also has 22 double-doubles this year. Those numbers, however, are partly due to the Cougars’ lack of alternatives after losing heavily to graduation and the transfer portal. Also, BYU is a distant fourth in the standings, five games back of the Zags.

Alex Fowler of Portland leads the conference in scoring (18.2 ppg) and field-goal percentage (60.2), and has the Pilots just one game back of GU. But she was held in check in both meeting with the Zags, and her 5.6 rebounding average ranks only 13th in the WCC.

But Fortier pointed out that the bigger reward would be a conference title.

“We have bigger goals,” she said.