Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO – Despite a push early in the second half, the San Francisco women's basketball team dropped its conference opener to Bay Area rival Saint Mary's, 68-48, Thursday night at War Memorial Gym.
The Dons found themselves down by 10 points heading into the halftime break, but the start of the second saw USF pick up momentum and cut the lead to four after a 9-2 run was capped by a
Mel Khlok three with 15:13 to play in the game. With the triple, the Dons pulled the score to 40-36 in favor of the visiting Gaels and the home team was on a 5-of-9 shooting clip to open the half. Two minutes later when
Taj Winston took a charge under the Saint Mary's basket, the swing to the high side of the scoreboard seemed almost certain.
However, USF went on to cool to a 2-of-15 pace from the floor over the next 12 minutes of action as Saint Mary's widened the margin to 60-44 after Carli Rosenthal laid the ball up and in with 3:19 remaining. The Gaels went on to nail 8-of-10 attempts from the line in the final minutes to close with a 68-48 victory and avenge last season's last-minute loss to the Dons on Jan. 23, 2012.
The Dons held the lead nearly six minutes into the contest after
Taylor Proctor powered in the putback to give USF a 9-7 advantage. The Gaels went on a 15-2 run to nab its first double-digit lead in the game when a three by Kate Gaze found the bottom of the net with 9:05 to play in the first.
The Dons muscled back after
Taj Winston grabbed a defensive rebound off a missed free throw by Danielle Mauldin and went coast-to-coast for the layup with 8:14 to play. After USF and Saint Mary's traded threes by Gaze and Khlok, and Zhane Dikes converted two from the line, the Dons cut the lead to 25-20 with 7:19 remaining in the period. Saint Mary's closed the first half of action on a 14-4 run to get the 10-point halftime advantage.
Khlok finished as the Dons leading scorer with 13 points, but struggled with her usually consistent touch, hitting 30 percent of her attempts from the field, well under her season average of 46.3 percent shooting. Winston added 11 points and six rebounds for USF and finished as the only other Don to reach double-digit scoring. For the second consecutive game, rebounding proved to be problematic for USF as the team was outrebounded 44-34.
For Saint Mary's, Mauldin benefitted from 13 attempts from the free throw line – in which she hit 10 of her attempts – to finish with a game-high 16 points. Junior Jackie Nared, who was leading the conference in scoring heading into tonight's game averaging 19.1 points, was held to 12 points of 5-of-14 shooting from the field by the USF defense. Along with 29-of-35 shooting from the charity stripe, Saint Mary's was helped on the scoreboard with 22 points off 18 USF turnovers in the game.
With the win, Saint Mary's moves to 9-4 on the season and 1-0 in West Coast Conference action, while USF sits at an even 7-7 record after dropping its first WCC game of the year.
Up next for the Dons is a date with BYU on Saturday, as the team travels to Provo, Utah for a 1 p.m. tip. USF looks to shock the Cougars for its second-consecutive trip to the Marriott Center, where the Dons pulled off a 71-64 stunner over then-No. 23 BYU on Feb. 16, 2012.
