‘Our team has a lot of work to do’: Scoring lulls haunt Gonzaga women in 67-49 loss to Texas Tech
Things couldn’t have been much worse for the Gonzaga women’s basketball team Friday.
Scoring droughts thanks to poor shooting and turnovers doomed the Bulldogs, and the Texas Tech Red Raiders pulled away for a 67-49 victory at Paradise Jam at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
The Zags are 4-4 overall, their worst start in coach Lisa Fortier’s 11th season.
Texas Tech (7-1) pressured the Zags all around the court. Gonzaga had to use forwards Yvonne Ejim and Maud Huijbens several times just trying to break backcourt pressure.
The Red Raiders’ defense had Gonzaga out of sync, and the Zags had few good looks.
“We had to make them uncomfortable because they shoot the ball so well,” Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich told the ESPN+ broadcasting crew .
It worked. Gonzaga hit its season average of 17 turnovers through three quarters and finished with 24. The Red Raiders didn’t turn the mistakes into many points, but Gonzaga’s difficulties meant fewer attempted shots.
“We didn’t play tough enough and you can’t overcome 24 turnovers,” Fortier said. “That’s becoming a problem. Against the pressure, we needed to execute a lot better.”
Gonzaga trailed 26-20 at halftime after playing maybe its worst half this season.
The good news for the Bulldogs was the Red Raiders didn’t play much better in the first two quarters.
The Zags couldn’t make baskets – going more than 9 minutes between Ejim baskets – a banked in 3-pointer to beat the shot clock to open the quarter and 4-footer in the key with 1 second left before halftime.
Ejim’s 3-pointer capped a 10-0 surge that started late in the first quarter, pulling the Zags within 20-18 after Texas Tech led 20-8.
“I thought we played harder than we did (Thursday),” Fortier said of the Gonzaga’s 65-64 loss to Missouri State in which the Zags rallied from a 17-point deficit to tie the score at 64 in the waning seconds.
“We didn’t bow down, but part way through the game it looked like we were very disconnected. That led to us getting scrambled up on defense.”
Texas Tech pushed the lead to double digits quickly in the third quarter and the Zags didn’t have any answers.
Maya Peat’s steal led to a layup that gave Texas Tech a 41-24 lead. Moments later, Jasmine Shavers hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 46-28 with 1:51 left in the third quarter.
Gonzaga got within 15 points when freshman Allie Turner made a 3-pointer, but the Red Raiders took a 48-31 leadninto the final quarter.
Ejim’s basket cut the lead to 52-36 with a little more than 6 minutes remaining.
Kelly Mora’s jumper gave Texas Tech its biggest lead at 67-47 with 18 seconds left.
Ejim had a 30th career double double, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Turner led with 14 points, three assists and three rebounds, and Claire O’Connor had 11 points and seven rebounds.
Gonzaga will play its third game in three days Saturday when it takes on talented Florida State (7-1).
Florida State is averaging 96.4 points per game. The Seminoles handled Missouri State 97-66 in the other Paradise Jam game Thursday.
“Our team has a lot of work to do,” Fortier said. “That’s what it’s like this time of year … when you’re tested.
“We’ve been tested several times and we just have to get back to work and do a little bit of a gut check and, hopefully, play tougher (Saturday) and figure out what areas we can clean up.”