SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco women's basketball team played its best third quarter in months Thursday, closing a 20-point game into a single-possession contest, but visiting Saint Mary's hot shooting in the fourth coupled with a lock-down defense kept the Dons at bay and led the Gaels to an 80-65 West Coast Conference victory at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.



HOW IT HAPPENED

• Marianna Klavina, making her first career start for the Dons (5-12, 1-5 WCC) Thursday, made a running layup for USF's first shot attempt of the fourth quarter, making it just a three-point game at 58-55. Saint Mary's former 20-point second quarter lead was back down to just one possession. San Francisco had come all the way back from being down 32-12 in the second quarter with two big runs.
   
• The first, a 14-3 run to close out the first half and cut the deficit in half, trailing by 10 at the break. The last, a 19-4 push that started after the Gaels (10-7, 1-5 WCC) had pushed their lead back to 16. USF made 8 of 11 shots during the run, including four from Marta Galic that amounted to nine of the run's points. San Francisco shot 52.4 percent in the third quarter alone and scored 25 points in the period – its second-most third-quarter points since scoring 29 against San Jose State on opening night on Nov. 9
   
• But after Klavina's basket to start the fourth, San Francisco would go just 2 for its next 14, including missing eight straight shots over the next 3 minutes, 20 seconds. Meanwhile, the Gaels made four of their first five attempts in the final frame, the last one a 3-pointer from Jasmine Forcadilla that put SMC up by nine at 68-59.
   
• Julia Nielacna hit a trey to cut Saint Mary's lead to seven with 4:21 still left to play, but that was the last basket San Francisco would make. The Gaels shot 70 percent (7 for 10) in the fourth quarter while holding the Dons to just 20 percent (3 for 15). They outscored USF, 22-12, and were also clutch at the free-throw line, going 6 for 8 in the final 2:17.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 22: Shannon Powell had her first 20-point game since Dec. 29, going 9 for 16 from the floor and 4 of 7 from the charity stripe for a game-high 22 points. She also had four steals, three rebounds and two assists.
• 38: San Francisco outrebounded Saint Mary's, 38-31. That included 16 offensive rebounds, its second-most this season after pulling down 19 versus UT Arlington on Nov. 25.
• 53.7: The WCC's two best shooting teams met Thursday night at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center. Saint Mary's lived up to its billing as the conference's most accurate team, posting USF's highest opponent field goal percentage at 53.7 percent. Meanwhile, the Dons were held to 39.7 percent shooting after entering the night second in the conference at a 44.9 percent clip for the year.

COMING UP

• San Francisco hosts Northern California neighbor Pacific at noon on Saturday as part of a day-night doubleheader with the USF men's team, who hosts BYU at 8 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.