Box Score SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco women's basketball team was downed by the red-hot Saint Mary's Gaels 86-67 Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Gym.
The Dons (7-9, 2-3 WCC), who finished the game shooting 40.7 percent, including a 9-for-18 effort from beyond the arc, could not keep pace with the visiting Gaels (14-3, 4-2 WCC). Saint Mary's poured in 55.0 percent of its attempts from the field, the team's third-best shooting performance of the season and the fourth time the Gaels have finished over the .500 shooting mark for the game.
USF was paced by sophomore
Taylor Proctor's 24 points and eight rebounds. This marks her third-consecutive team-leading effort, where she is averaging 25.0 points per game in the Dons' last three contests. Reaching double-digits for the first time this season, senior
Alexa Hardick added 12 points, all from long range, and
Zhané Dikes contributed 11 points, eight rebounds and a game-high five assists.
The Dons were held scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of the game, as Saint Mary's scored the first six points in the contest. USF got on the board after
Rachel Howard scooped up a steal and landed an outlet pass to Dikes who assisted
Bryn Stark for the layup. The leading scorer in the West Coast Conference, Jackie Nared, grew the Saint Mary's advantage to double-digits as she drained a three with 14:14 remaining in the period, and USF still sitting at two points for the game.
With the Gaels in control 15-5 after a Shannon Mauldin layup, USF's offense came to life. Hardick splashed a 3-pointer to put the score at 17-11 in favor of the visitors with 12:11 remaining in the half. After a block by sophomore Denae Mary Williams, the senior from Dallas, Texas, again found her long-range target to close the gap to five. Dikes then added a jumper After before Hardick drained her third 3-pointer in a three-minute span to tie the game at 19 apiece with 9:10 to play in the opening period, capping an 11-2 run.
The Gaels again pulled out to a lead, and owned a 42-30 halftime advantage after Lauren Nicholson's 3-pointer beat the buzzer for the Gaels to send the Dons to the locker room down by 12. The second half margin hovered around the 10-point mark for the opening minutes of the period before the Saint Mary's offense began to pull away.
The Gaels went on a 19-3 run that included three-straight 3-pointers. The scoring clip spanned more than four minutes of game action as Saint Mary's hit eight of its nine attempts from the field while USF was 1-for-6 and committed two turnovers in that same time period. A jumper by
Aundrea Gordon stopped the run with 11:26 remaining in the game and the score at 67-43, but the damage was done. The Gaels went on to win 86-67 and post its 10th game crossing the 80-point mark.
Nared finished with 24 points on the night, with Nicholson adding 18. Danielle Mauldin, who entered the game as the NCAA's leading rebounder, finished with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double, her 13th of the season. The Dons finished the game winning the battle of the boards 32-31, but could only manage eight points off 14 offensive rebounds. USF turned the ball over 20 times which accounted for 25 Saint Mary's points. With the loss to the Gaels, the Dons have dropped 12 of its last 13 meetings to its Bay Area foe.
The Dons continue its longest home stand of the regular season, hosting Gonzaga in a rare Friday conference matchup. Tip time is slated for 7 p.m. on Jan. 17.
