No last shot this time, Gonzaga upsets No. 15 BYU women to take WCC Tourney title

LAS VEGAS — In the third meeting between the two teams this season, Gonzaga's size finally overwhelmed the heavily favored BYU women's basketball team.

The Zags didn't zig, but they did drive straight up the middle and punch the 15th-ranked Cougars in the mouth.

If the top-seeded Cougs were stunned enough to see double vision, nobody would've blamed them. No last-second tip-in needed this year.

Kayleigh Truong had 12 points and four assists, and twin sister Kaylynne Truong added 14 points and four rebounds as Gonzaga led wire-to-wire en route to their second-straight West Coast Conference Tournament championship 71-59 over BYU on Tuesday afternoon at the Orleans Arena.

Melanie Kempton added 15 points, four rebounds and three assists for the Zags (26-6), who secured the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament by outrebounding the Cougars 37-33 with 28 points in the place and 25 off the bench. Yvonne Ejim, the WCC's Sixth Woman of the Year supplied 11 points and three rebounds as Gonzaga snapped BYU's eight-game winning streak.

Shaylee Gonzales had 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists for BYU, which dropped just its third game of the season, second against a conference opponent, and first in three meetings with Gonzaga. Paisley Harding added 14 points and six rebounds for a BYU team playing in front of a decidedly pro-Gonzaga environment.

Lauren Gustin supplied 10 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars (26-3), who will still make the NCAA Tournament, despite the loss. For BYU, Tuesday's game was about seeding, a possible argument to host the first two rounds of the tournament, and beating a rival for a third time.

That, and pride. A year after Jill Townsend stormed downcourt at the buzzer to rally the Zags for a WCC Tournament title, Gonzaga made it two-in-a-row.

"It's emotional, because I knew how much my players wanted it," said BYU coach Jeff Judkins as he wiped a tear from his eye after the game. "A lot of times, you don't get everything — but you still want it. I think there's where I'm emotional. I know how much the players wanted to win this tournament.

"Last year, we lost in a heartbreaker; it was tough. We wanted to come out and win this. It's also one less game for my seniors who spent so much time sacrificing for this team. But I'm very proud of these guys and what they've accomplished so far. Nobody thought we'd be where we are — but these guys did. We're going to do our best, represent our university and this conference in the NCAA Tournament, and hopefully make everybody proud."

The Zags didn't necessarily need to win the WCC autobid to guarantee a spot in the NCAA women's tournament. But they took it ruthlessly, leading for all but 20 seconds of the first half, and never trailed after halftime.

After trailing for most of the game, BYU ended the third quarter on a 7-2 spurt, including back-to-back buckets by Gonzales to pull within five, 43-38. An and-one layup by Sara Hamson pulled the Cougars within 46-43 just inside of the fourth quarter, but Gonzaga kept them at arm's length — including with back-to-back jumpers by Kempton — into the final minutes.

Gonzaga opened the fourth quarter 4-for-4 from the field, including a dish from Kayleigh Truong to sister Kaylynne for three with 6:37 left to push the Zags lead to 10, 53-43.

"I thought defensively, they did a really good job on Lauren," Judkins said. "They didn't let her get the ball the way she wanted to. And then, they were hard to shoot over.

"They did a better job of not letting her angle. And we didn't get a lot of Shaylee and Paisley getting all the way to the hoop. We hurt them in Provo with that, and didn't get the opportunity to do that."

"I don't think we'll end up playing in the play-in game, which I was worried we'd do. But I can tell you I have looked zero times at bracketology," Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. "I hope we'll get something that we're deserving of. Hopefully we'll get a great draw, and get going."

After Tuesday's win, she won't need to look at any more projections, be they from ESPN's Charlie Creme or anywhere else. Even if the players indulged in the annual pastime of postseason projections, they won't be sweating out Selection Sunday this year.

And they didn't even need a last-second jumper from Jill Townsend to earn another automatic bid.

"Let's not put our fate in somebody else's hands," Kayleigh Truong remembered quipping to her team before the game. "Let's put our fate in our control — and we punched our ticket."

BYU scarcely threatened after the Zags' late 10-point lead, including being held without a field goal for 3:53 of the final seven minutes. Every time the Cougars made a run, Gonzaga stepped in the way — either physically, or with a clutch shot.

"They're strong girls," Harding said. "They really build themselves in the weight room, just like us. But they're also competitors; they want to win, and they probably did not like that we smacked them on senior night (in Provo) and probably wanted to come in and show us up. They did that."

BYU had more turnovers — five, to be exact — than made field goals (three) as the Zags pushed their 16-12 lead to a eight on a personal 5-0 run by Cierra Walker, and the decidedly pro-Gonzaga arena was howling with a 27-18 point lead with 2:57 left in the first half.

Both teams finished with 12 turnovers, combining for 9 total points.

The team that had lost both regular season meetings to the Cougars — including a 63-39 rout in front of a Marriott Center-record crowd in Provo back on Feb. 19 — was motivated to put forward a better showing at the Orleans Arena, otherwise known as South Spokane for Gonzaga's consistent ability to play in the WCC Tournament finals.

Led by Kempton's eight and six apiece from Kayliegh Truong and Yvonne Ejim, the Zags held BYU to 28% shooting en route to a 29-21 halftime advantage.

If BYU and Gonzaga played 100 times, each team would probably win 50 of them, Judkins said. The rivalry is real — and it's one that will continue when the Cougars go the way of the Big 12 in 2023, the coach added.

Twice during the season, the ball bounced BYU's way. This time, it Zagged harder.

"We've played Gonzaga three times this year. We know them really well, they know us really well," said BYU guard Maria Albiero, who had 5 points and two assists.

"Today, we didn't hit a lot of our open shots. I think all of us tried to do a little bit too much here and there. It's normal, it happens.

"But we haven't lost much this year, and we've got to learn from it. We'll take a good luck at ourselves."

Both teams will learn their NCAA women's tournament fate Sunday at 6 p.m. MT on ESPN.

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