‘It’s a great opportunity to teach’: Gonzaga women a work in progress after roster turnover, injuries
Don’t judge the Gonzaga women’s basketball team on the FanFest scrimmage Saturday afternoon.
The Zags are a work in progress.
A year ago, a veteran team emerged, going 32-4 and advancing to the Sweet 16. It’s the best record in school history.
Gonzaga had to have three males who practice with them assist in the scrimmage with four players out with various injuries.
Gonzaga has much work ahead and has three weeks to tighten some things up before opening the season with an exhibition against College of Idaho.
Even with all the question marks – most obvious of which is who will replace the Truong twins at point guard – there was fifth-year senior Yvonne Ejim in the middle of things.
Ejim, the reigning West Coast Conference Player of the Year, led Blue to a 25-23 win over White before a crowd of 1,000 at McCarthey Athletic Center. She finished with 10 points and five rebounds in a scrimmage divided into four 5-minute quarters.
Freshman forward Lauren Whittaker, graduate transfer guard Tayla Dalton and sophomore transfer forward McKynnlie Dalan are expected back by the season opener Nov. 5 against Montana, if not four days earlier against College of Idaho. Junior guard Bree Salenbien is rehabbing from her third ACL surgery.
“It’s always harder when you only have half your team,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said.
Dalton and Whittaker are projected to be starters along with Ejim and senior forward Maud Huijbens. The fifth spot and the substitute rotation are to be determined.
Behind Ejim and Turner, Blue opened a 13-6 lead and stretched it to 21-11 by halftime. That’s when Blue hit a cold stretch, going scoreless in the third period. That allowed White to pull within 21-19 going into the final 5 minutes.
Two free throws from Ejim with 1:08 remaining gave Blue a 25-19 lead. Junior guard transfer Vera Gunaydin hit a layup at the buzzer to pull White within the final margin.
The Zags played well on defense, but the shooting was off. Blue and White combined for 19 turnovers with a combined 15 steals.
Fortier told the crowd during introductions that defense would be a strength.
Blue and White shot a combined 20 of 56 – 2 of 21 from 3-point range. The Zags have led the nation in 3-point shooting the past two seasons.
“We have good shooters but finding the times to shoot them and times not to and the patience (is key),” Fortier said. “We’ve been a little impatient in practice at times and we looked a little impatient today.”
Turner, sophomore guard Claire O’Conner and junior guard Ines Bettencourt, a transfer from UConn, each played the entire scrimmage. Bettencourt led White with 10 points and four rebounds.
Fortier received a warm welcome from the crowd during introductions. She just finished radiation treatments after surgery to remove cancer in April.
Salenbien hasn’t decided if she’ll rejoin the team in a playing capacity. But she participated in the 3-point shooting contest, beating Turner in the final 23-17 in a 60-second span. Salenbien made eight straight to start the final.
Fortier said the Zags will learn much from the scrimmage video.
“It’s a great opportunity to teach,” she said. “We have so many new players we’re going to watch all the film all the time … because they don’t know what our standards and expectations are here. We’re having to coach them a lot more.”
Senior wing Esther Little, who came off the bench last season, said she thought the Zags played fine considering they’ve been practicing three weeks.
“We did actually really well,” Little said. “We’ve hardly played together in practice. We’ve had two 4-minute scrimmages and the teams have been mixed up. To bring seven new people in and play together as we did shows type of players coaches recruit.”
The Zags travel to Arizona State on Saturday for a closed scrimmage.