SPOKANE -- Junior Courtney Vandersloot led six Gonzaga University basketball players in double-figures with a game-high 18 points to help the Bulldogs cruise to a 100-42 victory over Warner Pacific College in an exhibition game Friday evening.
The game was never in doubt for the Zags as they built a double-digit lead before the Knights scored their first points. Gonzaga, who opened the game with 11-straight points and held the 50-29 advantage at halftime, shot an impressive 55.0 percent (22-of-40) in the opening half.
Senior Tiffanie Shives scored the first five points of the contest, including an opening 3-pointer, while Vandersloot scored 12 of her 18 points before half and had seven of the Zags 16 assists.
Besides Shives and Vandersloot, senior Heather Bowman and sophomore Katelan Redmon, playing her first game in a Gonzaga jersey, led the way in the beginning 20. Bowman scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and Redmon added eight points.
It was the Zags defense that shined in the second half as they only allowed the Knights to hit one field goal over 19 minutes of action. Warner Pacific’s lone field goal of the second half - before Cameryn Calhoun hit a jumper with 37 seconds remaining in the contest – came at the 13:59 mark on a Calhoun jumper.
Gonzaga forced Warner Pacific to turn the ball over 18 times in the final half, with the Zags stealing it 12 times.
A pair of underclassmen led the way for GU in the final half. Sophomore Kayla Standish scored 16 points and freshman Meghan Winters added a double-figure performance of 10. The Zags shot 54.1 percent as a team in the final half, hitting 20-of-37 from the floor.
The Bulldogs begin regular-season action next Friday when they travel to South Dakota State University.
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