Gonzaga women eliminated from WBIT with OT loss to Minnesota

A season marked by many early season challenges concluded with the Gonzaga women’s basketball team going down fighting.

The Zags finished the 2024-25 campaign on a good note — a season-ending loss notwithstanding.

Minnesota rallied to force overtime, and the Gophers found enough offense to finish off the Bulldogs 82-77 in a Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament quarterfinal at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Two free throws from Ines Bettencourt gave Gonzaga a 67-61 lead with 3:37 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Three straight three-pointers by the Gophers gave them a 70-67 lead with 1:10 to go.

Gonzaga fought back, getting a tying three-pointer from freshman sensation Allie Turner with 40.5 seconds left.

The Zags would have a final possession, but they couldn’t muster a good shot in the final offensive set as the clock expired.

A free throw by the Gophers put them ahead for good at 73-72 with 3:02 to go in overtime. Minnesota would extend its lead to 80-75 before time ran out on the Zags.

“We took a couple of average shots and we were one and done on those shots and they went down and made baskets,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “It was an empty for us and a made basket for them. One of two of them were shot clock violations. That was a time our offense effected our defense. If you have an empty you’ve got to go get a stop.”

The final loss is much easier to swallow than Gonzaga’s semifinal heartbreaker in the West Coast Conference Tournament.

The Zags finish the season at 24-11. Gonzaga was 56-15 the past two years.

“Just a really good basketball game to be a part of,” Fortier said. “Our team battled. We got everything that we would have expected our team to do.”

It wouldn’t have been another game without another record broken by graduate forward Yvonne Ejim. She scored a team-high 27 points, finishing with 726 points for the season and eclipsing a record (712) set by Courtney Vandersloot.

Ejim had a 40th career double-double with 15 rebounds. It was her 15th double-double of the season.

Bettencourt gave Gonzaga a big lift off the bench. In 21 minutes she scored 13 points and dished out a game-high six assists.

Gonzaga had 20 assists. Tayla Dalton and Bree Salenbien each had five.

Turner added 12 points. The Zags made 10 of 35 shots from three-point range.

For a third time in three games in the WBIT, the Zags got off to a slow start. Minnesota equaled its biggest lead in the first quarter when it took a 25-16 advantage.

Like the other WBIT games, Gonzaga got untracked in the second quarter.

Two baskets from Ejim and a three-pointer from Bree Salenbien highlighted a 7-0 surge, pulling the Bulldogs within 27-25 with 5:14 to go in the second period.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Turner and Ejim pushed Gonzaga ahead for the first time at 35-33 with 1:32 to go before halftime.

Minnesota made just 1 of 4 foul shots in the final 1:08, and the Zags took a 35-34 lead into halftime.

A jumper by Ejim as time expired in the third quarter gave the Zags a 56-50 lead.

Amaya Battle had a huge game for the Gophers with a different combination for a double–double. She scored a game-high 35 points and had 10 assists to go with five rebounds. Grace Grocholski had 20 points, six rebounds and four assists and Tori McKinney had 19 points.

“We didn’t make quite enough adjustments on our end,” Fortier said. “There were just a couple too many easy possessions that we left out there on the defensive side specifically.”

Minnesota (23-11) moves on to the Final Four and will meet Florida (19-17), a 67-63 winner over Texas Tech, also Monday.

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