Rice, No. 16 Gonzaga women end Pepperdine streak 83-60

Mar 1, 2019, 04:08 am

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Zykera Rice scored 23 points on 9 of 12 shooting and No. 16 Gonzaga pulled away to end Pepperdine's eight-game winning streak 83-60 on Thursday night.

Chandler Smith added 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Bulldogs (26-3, 15-2 West Coast Conference), who clinched a tie for the league title. Laura Stockton had 13 points, six assists and four rebounds for Gonzaga, which defeated the Waves 79-54 on the opening weekend of league play.

Pepperdine (19-9, 12-5) hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and took a 21-15 lead but Gonzaga hit three in the second to go up 38-34. Rice hit a later jumper to put the Zags ahead 57-50 after three quarters and Stockton and Smith had the first two buckets of the fourth quarter to put the lead at 11. The Bulldogs went on to out-score the Waves 26-10 in the final 10 minutes by making 12 of 14 shots while Pepp was 4 of 16.

Deezha Battle had 13 points for the Waves, Barbara Sitanggan had 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.

Gonzaga ended up shooting 55 percent (35-64) while Pepperdine was at 30 percent (21 of 70).