Lady Toreros shot down by Pilots, bit by Bulldogs

Coming off of a big two-game sweep of the Bay Area road trip that placed them at 6-3 in league, the USD women’s basketball team had a lot to look forward to this past weekend with Portland and Gonzaga coming to town, but by Saturday night, they had a lot to regret.
 “I thought we played with heart the whole game, but we just couldn’t get the win in the end,” senior Sara Vanderhorst said. “There wasn’t much we could do. There are always things that you wish could have gone differently but that’s just the way the game is.”
USD failed to capitalize on its huge opportunity to make a push at one of the top two seeds in the WCC tournament next month by falling to Portland 74-68 last Thursday and to first-place Gonzaga 75-61 on Saturday afternoon.  The two losses left the Lady Toreros in sole possession of fourth place with Portland only half a game back.
In Thursday night’s tilt, USD weathered the Lady Pilots’ fast start and tied the game up at 28 on a Morgan Woodrow triple right before halftime. The Lady Toreros dug themselves another hole to start the second stanza but actually found themselves ahead 54-52 following a pair of Sam Child free throws with 7:27 remaining. 
However, Portland immediately responded with a 15-7 run to take control and held off a late USD scare to pull out the victory.
Forward Sam Child, in the midst of an outstanding junior campaign, led all scorers with 21 points to go along with 7 rebounds.  The starting backcourt of Dominique Conners and Morgan Woodrow scored 14 and 12, respectively.
USD didn’t have much time to lick their wounds with 22nd-ranked Gonzaga (20-4, 10-0) coming to town on Saturday for Senior Day.
“Going into the Gonzaga game we knew we had to put the loss to Portland behind us,” Vanderhost said. “Gonzaga, being the number one team in conference and 22nd in the nation, we knew that we would all have to be mentally focused and energized for the game on Saturday.”
Conners electrified the crowd right before the first half buzzer by dropping a 35-footer right in front of the Gonzaga bench in between three lady Bulldog defenders.
“That was big,” Conners said.  “It went in, and it was like I won a national championship.”
Unfortunately, it only cut Gonzaga’s lead to 14. Other than Conners’ miraculous shot, Gonzaga spent the game proving to the USD team and the announced crowd of 741 that they are far and away the best team in the conference. While USD’s men’s team got right to work in Spokane falling behind 19-0 on Saturday night, it took the Lady Toreros just over 16 minutes to fall behind by that same deficit at 39-20.
Paced by Conners and senior forward Morgan Henderson, who each had 17 points, the Lady Toreros did mount a rally in the second half. Conners’ free throw cut the deficit to seven at 63-56 with 6:01 remaining, but it would be as close as USD would get.
USD’s Felicia Wijenberg contributed a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 27 solid minutes off the bench. Gonzaga guard Tiffany Shives went 6-10 from three on her way to a game high 20.
Things don’t get any easier for the Lady Toreros as they finish out the regular season with three road games. 
The first is this Saturday’s contest against Saint Mary’s Gaels, whose 9-2 conference record is good enough for second behind the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the WCC. The tipoff is set for 2 p.m.