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LAS VEGAS - For more than 30 minutes, the eighth-seeded LMU women's basketball team hung with top-seed Gonzaga Friday afternoon in the 2015 West Coast Conference Championships quarterfinal match-up. But with eight minutes remaining, the Zags used a full court press to kickstart a 10-0 run that would allow them to pull away for a 70-50 win over the Lions.
LMU concluded its season with a 7-24 overall mark, having won four of its last six games. Gonzaga improved to 24-6 overall and will advance to the tournament's semifinals where they will face BYU on Monday.
The Lions were led by junior Sophie Taylor's 16 points. Sophomore Leslie Lopez-Wood added 15, including two triples, which brings her LMU record single-season total to 82. Senior Emily Ben-Jumbo had 11 points and three rebounds in her final collegiate game while freshman Bree Alford added a team-high 10 boards.
Gonzaga was paced by 14 points each from Sunny Greinacher and Shelby Sheslek, and 11 points apiece from Elle Tinkle and Emma Stach. Sheslek also pulled down a game-high 14 boards and Greinacher added six assists for the Bulldogs.
The Lions stayed within seven points of the Zags through the first half as stingy defense kept both teams' shooting percentages down. With Gonzaga leading 15-10 at the 12:31 mark, the teams went on a combined near four-minute scoring drought. Leslie Lopez-Wood finally broke through with a jumper, trimming Gonzaga's lead down to three.
The Zags would lead by as many as seven on five occasions, but LMU never let the pull away, finding an answer each time. LMU scored its final five points of the half on free throws and a charge taken by Bree Alford on Gonzaga's final possession kept the Lions within five, 28-23, at the break.
LMU continued to hang with the Bulldogs for the first eight minutes of the second half, pulling to within one, 39-38, on a Taylor layup with 12:28 remaining.
But Shaniqua Nilles would score a layup and convert the three-point play with a foul shot, and the Zags would come out of the under-12 media timeout in a full court trapping press that caught the Lions on their heels.
Gonzaga would force three LMU turnovers while rolling off 10 straight points, opening up a 49-38 lead at the 8:39 mark. A four-minute LMU scoring drought was snapped by a Taylor three with 8:19 remaining, but the damage had been done.
The Zags stretched their lead to as many as 23 points late before setting in for the 20-point spread at the final buzzer.
LMU shot 37.5 percent from the field to Gonzaga's 46.7 percent, but the most telling statistic was a 26-9 points-off-turnovers advantage for the Zags.
