Gonzaga women surge past UTSA 67-51 in WBIT opener

Lisa Fortier said her team is over with mourning where it’s at in the postseason.

It showed Thursday as Fortier’s Gonzaga women’s basketball team played with joy and hustle-at-all-costs defense.

The Bulldogs extended their season one more game with an impressive 67-51 win over the UTSA Roadrunners before a vocal and modest crowd of 2,571 in a Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament first-round game at McCarthey Athletic Center.

No. 4 Gonzaga (23-10) travels to No. 1 Colorado (21-12) on Sunday for a second-round game. Game time will be announced Friday.

Colorado handled Southeastern Louisiana 73-41 in another opener Thursday.

The Zags played some of their best defense of the season, forcing most of the Roadrunners’ 19 turnovers. Gonzaga finished with 12 steals with graduate forward Yvonne Ejim grabbing a season-high seven, mostly out of trap situations.

How good was the two-time player and defensive player of the year in the West Coast Conference? So good that UTSA forward Jordyn Jenkins, the American Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year, said Ejim should already be in the WNBA.

Ejim had her 38th career double-double to go with the steals, finishing with 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field, 16 rebounds and two assists.

“The start was very rocky,” Ejim said. “But you could see us in the first quarter really dig ourselves back and take the game back into our possession and never really have it go another way. That’s the best thing I saw, just the feeling of momentum and I saw it in everyone’s eyes. I felt it on defense.”

Gonzaga didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter, but the Zags may have won this in the final three minutes of the first quarter.

After a slow start, Gonzaga used defense to spark a turnaround. The Zags went on a 15-0 run that spilled over into the early moments of the second quarter.

The Roadrunners led 17-11 when the Zags took off. An Ejim basket gave Gonzaga a 23-17 lead going into the second quarter.

Bree Salenbien capped the 15-0 surge with a 3-pointer for a 26-17 lead. It appeared UTSA (26-5) settled some thereafter.

“Our team played really, really well,” Fortier said. “… I’ve just been so proud of them and what they’ve done and how they’ve transformed themselves as a group of basketball players throughout the season. It’s just fun and fitting that we could play better than we did the last time we were here.”

Fortier was alluding to Senior Day, a 71-69 loss to San Francisco.

“We’re through the part of which tournament (we’re playing) anymore,” Fortier said. “That’s over now. We’ve kind of mourned that situation. I told the team that maybe this was our best game. We’re getting close to playing our best basketball in March, which is what you want to be doing.”

As if to put a ribbon on the first half, Ejim got her final steal of five as the clock ticked to the horn, and she drove for a breakaway layup at the buzzer to allow the Zags to take a 36-27 lead into halftime.

Ejim and Maud Huijbens combined for 26 points in the first half.

“It’s tough to play on somebody’s home court that is as good as Gonzaga,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “You always want to say that you gave your best effort; it just wasn’t good enough. They shot the ball really well, they played well and we couldn’t get the ball in the basket enough to stay in the game.”

Gonzaga held serve in the third quarter, taking a 48-37 lead into the fourth.

Freshman point guard Allie Turner hit a 3-pointer that gave the Zags their biggest lead at 66-47 with 1:15 to go.

Turner got off to a 0-for-5 start from 3-point range, but she ended up making three to break Brynna Maxwell’s single-season record (96). Turner has 98, finishing with 13 points, four assists and four rebounds.

Huijbens added 11 points, seven coming in the first quarter.

“Aside from all the technicalities of the game, we played with a lot of heart and that shows so much more than anyone can value,” Ejim said.