Nov. 16—Lisa Fortier looked at the final statistics and was shocked that they showed Stanford with just eight fast-break points.
The Gonzaga women’s basketball coach believes the statistic was inaccurate.
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The statistic that was more telling, though, was points off turnovers. Stanford turned 20 Gonzaga turnovers into 23 points.
Miscues, inconsistent defense and poor shooting were too much for the Bulldogs to overcome as the Cardinal pulled away for a 65-52 victory before a crowd of 5,584 at McCarthey Athletic Center.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all,” Fortier said. “I don’t know why they looked tired to be honest. Besides Alli (Turner), nobody played a crazy number of minutes. The mental fatigue when you’re struggling as a team — that’s still something that we’re working through. We don’t have the endurance yet mentally to push through the times when things are not going our way.”
It’s the first time since 2006-07 that Gonzaga (2-2) has lost back-to-back games at home.
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The Zags came out on fire, wanting to put the home-opening loss to Colorado State on Thursday behind them. Gonzaga built its biggest lead at 18-6 with 3:29 to go in the opening period.
There were signs, though, that Gonzaga would struggle to keep things on the rails. The Zags had six turnovers by the end of the first period, three in the final 3 minutes that allowed Stanford to pull within 22-13.
The count was up to 11 through the second quarter, and four straight to end the first half gave Stanford (5-0) the energy it needed.
Stanford trimmed Gonzaga’s lead to 33-31 going into halftime.
The Cardinal took advantage of three straight turnovers by the Zags to open the second half. The Bulldogs had seven in the third period alone, and Stanford led 48-42 going into the fourth.
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Gonzaga showed momentary life, pulling within 52-48 on a basket inside by Lauren Whittaker and a driving score from Turner.
Stanford didn’t flinch, going on a 13-4 spurt to finish the game.
“You certainly can’t turn the ball over 20 times and not have destroyed them on the glass and be able to win a game,” Fortier said. “And it’s really hard to destroy (a Stanford team) on the glass.”
Stanford didn’t win the rebounding battle by much (37-34), but the Zags only managed eight offensive rebounds on 35 missed shots.
Stanford, coming off a 54-46 win at Washington State on Friday, got solid efforts from Chloe Clardy off the bench, Nunu Agara and Courtney Ogden. Clardy had 20 points, Agara finished with 16 and a game-high 11 rebounds, and Ogden added 14 points and six rebounds.
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The Cardinal are picked to finish sixth in the ACC.
Turner, a sophomore guard, bounced back from her worst game as a Zag on Thursday (two points) to score a team-high 14 with six assists and four rebounds.
“Our first quarter was really good,” Turner said. “We had a lot of energy. Our second quarter we got away from our goals of rebounding, our goals of defending them one on one … and that combined with not scoring the ball very well got us into a little hole.”
Turner said the Zags compounded the turnovers by not defending and getting the ball back.
“Also a major problem,” Turner said. “When we turn the ball over and then we don’t get a stop, it’s like double as bad.”
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No other Zag reached double-figure scoring. Whittaker, Zeryhia Aokuso and Ines Bettencourt combined to make just 9 of 32 shots from the field.
“We got a little tired toward the end — not physically but more mentally,” Turner said. “Our decisions got worse, which led to the turnovers (and) which led to not focusing on defense.”
Gonzaga hits the road for a neutral-court game against South Dakota State in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at Sanford Pentagon on Wednesday. The Zags return home Sunday against Eastern Washington.
Turner believes the Zags will learn much from the rough start at home.
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“It’s a good opportunity to learn from our losses and mistakes,” Turner said. “Obviously it’s easy to learn from a win — like we did in our first two games, but we’re going to come out hungry at practice this week because we’re mad that we lost.”
