Women defeat Gonzaga in overtime at Frost Arena

Zach Anderson

Zach Anderson

The women’s basketball team rallied from a 33-28 halftime deficit to defeat Gonzaga 75-71 in overtime on Nov. 13 at Frost Arena.

Jill Young hit two free throws in the late seconds of overtime to seal the win for the Jacks.

“We showed some good toughness to keep making plays when things were not coming easy to us on the floor,” head coach Aaron Johnston said. “It also shows we need to be better on offense and defense so that we are not down in the first place.”

With 8:36 left in the game, SDSU took its second lead of the game, the other being a 5-4 lead early in the first half on a Ketty Cornemann three-pointer.

SDSU was up three with 2.2 seconds left in regulation until Gonzaga’s Tiffani Shives hit a three-pointer to send the game into overtime.

“The entire second half we were stressing the message that we were right there and in the game,” Johnston said. “We just needed to be the better team at the end. We stressed the same message in the overtime. It gave us a clean slate.”

Maria Boever led the Jacks, recording a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Young added 15 points, going 6-6 from the foul line.

The Jacks pulled out the victory despite having a lower shooting percentage than Gonzaga. The Jacks went 23-61 with a 37.7 field-goal percentage, and the Bulldogs went 26-61 for a 42.6 field-goal percentage.

SDSU forced 30 Bulldog turnovers – 18 in the second half – that helped the Jacks retake the lead. The Jackrabbits had 27 turnovers, but only 12 in the second half and overtime combined.