BYU knew the reality of what Tuesday’s West Coast Conference championship game meant for the program: A win would secure their NCAA Tournament dreams, while a loss would leave them with only a sliver of hope.
But, with .6 seconds left, Gonzaga’s Jill Townsend scored on an inbound play to edge out BYU 43-42 in Las Vegas.
BYU coach Jeff Judkins was disappointed with the final few plays that resulted in the Zags’ game-winning shot, but believes his team could have done more to prevent the loss.
“The game came down and we made some mistakes before that that we didn’t execute,” Judkins said. “You’ve got to give Gonzaga a lot of credit — they made the plays they needed to make and we didn’t.”
The loss was made even more difficult due to an issue that arose Monday night within the Gonzaga program.
Six Bulldogs, along with some Gonzaga coaches and staff, came down with viral gastroenteritis on Monday. The illness caused the Zags to make some serious changes to their starting lineup and impacted their depth.
Townsend, Gonzaga’s leading scorer, was among those players dealing with food poisoning. She stayed up sick all night and had two bags of IV fluids put in an hour before the game. The senior played limited minutes, but ended up scoring the two most important points of the game — her only points of the day.
Even with that, the Cougars still could not get it done.
With not even a full second left on the clock, Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said she drew up the inbound play specifically for Townsend because she trusted the senior to take that shot.
Townsend knew she would have to get the shot off immediately, but wasn’t even sure if it went in at first. Officials then also reviewed the play to make sure the ball left Townsend’s hands before time expired.
The call was confirmed.
“I had Sara Hamson right there in my face, so I’m kind of puzzled on how I got it around her — her hand was up, I really couldn’t see the hoop,” Townsend said. “... It was just an amazing play, something I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life. I’m not speechless often, but I definitely was after that.”
The game proved to be a complete defensive battle, but, after a competitive first quarter, the Cougars started pulling away.
BYU led by as many 13 points in the third quarter, but Gonzaga’s Yvonne Ejim was a key component in the Zags’ comeback. The freshman, who came into Tuesday’s game averaging six minutes, scored a team-high 13 points to led the Zags. All of Ejim’s points came in the second half.
“We didn’t know if they were going to come and play, but I knew if they came and showed up, they would give their best effort,” Judkins said. “They didn’t play their best team either, but they had a couple of kids step up tonight that didn’t help them earlier and made some baskets.”
Paisley Harding and Shaylee Gonzales led the BYU offense with a combined 25 points, but the Cougars really struggled to get points up in the fourth quarter, when they were outscored 16-6.
Whether of not the Cougars get into the NCAA Tournament, they are still preparing to continue with their postseason (possibly getting into the NIT). And they’ll use Tuesday’s loss as a lesson.
“It’s very frustrating to know we lost off a game-winner with .6 seconds left, but as a team we need to realize that we need to buckle down, that we need to take care of business,” Gonzales said. “That’s what big teams do. We need to buckle down on defense and not let them score that. But I’m very proud of my team; we fought very hard.”
