Gonzaga downs BYU women's WCC title hopes on buzzer-beater. Is NCAA bid still alive?

LAS VEGAS — Going into two games at the West Coast Conference Tournament, the BYU women's basketball team knew there was one easy path to the NCAA Tournament above all others.

In the immortal words of the late Raiders owner Al Davis: Just win, baby.

For 39 minutes and 59 seconds, the Cougars kept up that bargain.

Jill Townsend's jumper off an inbounds play with less than a second left help top-seeded Gonzaga rally for a 43-42 win over the Cougars on Tuesday afternoon at Orleans Arena, guaranteeing the Zags a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

"Today's a tough one," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. "One rebound, one defensive play. But that wasn't the game; the game came down to when we didn't execute offensively.

"I'm proud of my girls. They played their hearts out, and this is one of their better games. We've lost two tournament championships the same way, on a last-second shot. On that, I'll get better … I need to do a better job as a coach."

Townsend drained her buzzer-beat shot straight over the top of BYU's 6-foot-7 center Sara Hamson, one of the top shot blockers in the nation. The defense set up by BYU for the final play of the game was good.

Gonzaga's offense — or more specifically, Townsend — was just a little bit better.

"I'm kind of puzzled how I got it around her," said Townsend, who had two bags of IV fluid before the game after struggling with food poisoning Monday night. "Her hand was up, and I couldn't see the hoop. I had no idea if I got it off in time."

Paisley Johnson Harding had 12 points, five rebounds and two assists, and Shaylee Gonzales added 13 points and three rebounds to lead BYU, which led for more than 30 minutes and only lost the lead twice.

But one of those lead changes came in the final second.

"It's very, very frustrating, to know we lost on a game-winner with 0.6 seconds left," said Gonzales, who was named to the WCC All-Tournament Team. "But as a team, we need to realize we need to buckle down and take care of business on defense.

"We fought. We fought really hard, and we're going to use this experience to grow and to get better."

Yvonne Ejim, who led Gonzaga (22-3) with 13 points and nine rebounds, pulled down an offensive rebound with 1 second left, leading to a held-ball initially awarded to BYU. After Gonzaga called a 30-second timeout, the call was reversed and the Zags had one final shot.

Kaylynne Truong dished the inbounds pass to Townsend, who did not start, and the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player made her only shot of the day to clinch the win.

Lauren Gustin added 8 points and 13 rebounds for the Cougars (18-5), and Teegan Graham supplied 7 points. Hamson added three blocks for BYU, which led 22-13 at halftime and by as many as 13 points early in the third quarter before the Zags rallied.

Truong finished with 8 points for the Zags, who were without a couple of starters due to a stomach flu that hit the program.

The Cougars, who were outrebounded 40-34, held the Zags to 28% shooting — including just 4 of 12 from 3-point range — while struggling to a 2-of-15 effort from deep themselves.

The Zags were without or limited to several key contributors after that stomach flu swept through the team and staff personnel Monday and Tuesday, according to KREM in Spokane. The school told the television station through a spokesperson that the bug is "not in any way" related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was a long day; no other words about it," Townsend said. "I got food poisoning last night, and some other teammates did. We tried to battle through it, and it's kudos to our trainer and team doctor. I had two bags of IV fluid before the game.

"They were working overtime to help us put some minutes on the court. We weren't sure how many minutes, but we knew we were going to leave it all out there on the court … It wasn't the prettiest game, at all, but I think when the chips were down and we needed to rally, we showed incredible grit, toughness and resilience."

The university didn't say which athletes were sick, but regular starters Townsend, LeeAnne Wirth and Cierra Walker did not start against the Cougars. Townsend and Walker played limited minutes off the bench, and both were held scoreless in the first half.

"There's no question Jill Townsend wasn't Jill Townsend today," Judkins said. "But we were tired, too. These games take a lot out of you.

"Gonzaga is a team that won't beat themselves. When we had some leads, we just didn't come down and didn't take care of it."

The Cougars held Gonzaga scoreless for eight minutes in the first half, including during a 9-0 run to open the second quarter fueled by Graham's 3-point bomb in between a pair of inside makes from Gustin around the six-minute mark. The Zags didn't score a field goal in the second quarter until Abby O'Connor's 3-pointer with 29 seconds left, and went on to trail 36-27 after three quarters.

But the team that ranked as high as No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 didn't go away. Games aren't won in three quarters, and BYU took a hard lesson in finding that out. The Cougars made three field goals in the fourth quarter, with two of them coming from Gonzales.

The Zags ended the game on an 11-2 run, including a 7-0 spurt capped by Ejim's final bucket to pull with 40-39 with one minute left and set up Townsend's hero moment.

Now BYU will return home for a week while they await the NCAA Selection Show next Monday. The Cougars have ridden the projected bubble for several weeks, finishing around the edge of the "Last Four In" following a win over then-No. 16 Gonzaga in Provo to being among the first teams out after a loss to San Francisco in the regular-season finale.

"Personally, I think we should go," Judkins said. "We played Gonzaga great. I've watched other teams we know are going to go, and we're as good as anybody.

"Hopefully people will look at it and say, 'BYU's a top-64 team in the country.'"

WCC Women's All-Tournament Team

Most Outstanding Player: Jill Townsend, Gonzaga

Khari Clark, LMU

Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga

Shaylee Gonzales, BYU

Merle Wiehl, Santa Clara

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