Women’s NCAA Tournament Recap: #11 Gonzaga Dances Past #6 George Washington
By Mary Harvill
Motivated indeed. After a disappointing end to the WCC Tournament and being named a #11 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Gonzaga women rolled past George Washington in decisive fashion 82-69 in the first in Corvallis, Oregon on Friday.
Sunny Greinacher led the Zags in scoring with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Keani Albanez finished with 19 points and Elle Tinkle added 7 points.
Hannah Schaible led George Washington with 13 points. Shannon Cranshaw finished with 11 points as did prolific do-everything player Jonquel Jones. Jones found herself in foul trouble early accumulating 3 fouls in the first half but went on to finish the game with a double-double putting up the 11 points plus a whopping 14 rebounds.
Gonzaga jumped out to a 7-0 lead quickly and never really ever looked back. The differential between the 2 teams was 16-9 at the under 12 media timeout. The Zags finished the first half up 40-25 after a 9-1 run.
More from 2015 NCAA Tournament
- Looking Back on Gonzaga’s Season
- West Coast Convo Bracketology Competition Results
- Playing “What if….?” With Gonzaga and the NCAA Tournament
- West Coast Convo Writers Bracketology Competition Update
- NCAA Elite Eight Recap: Gonzaga Ends Historic Season Against Duke
The Colonials started the second half hotter than their first, claiming the first 4 points of the half and getting within 6 points of Gonzaga with 3:34 remaining in the game, but were never much of a threat.
On paper it seemed like this George Washington team could present a greater challenge to Gonzaga, but it didn’t play out on the court.
Gonzaga will meet #3 seed Oregon State on Sunday in Corvallis, which is a home game for the Beavers even with the large Gonzaga contingent in town. If Gonzaga can win the game, they will be able to return to their hometown of Spokane, the site for the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games in their region.
The George Washington women will return to D.C. and, aside from this first round loss, they can celebrate what was an otherwise great season for their program.