Gonzaga smothers Texas Southern, 80-45

Jenn Wirth, LeeAnne Wirth, and Katie Campbell each scored 14 points to help lead the Gonzaga Bulldogs to an easy win over the Texas Southern Tigers, 80-45.

The Zags have had a week off and looked more than ready to delight the crowd for the first home game in weeks, leaping out to a 22-9 lead in the first quarter and never looking back. Gonzaga led Texas Southern 44-17 at half, and the Tigers were only able to keep pace with Gonzaga in the fourth quarter.

The inside out game was running strong, led by Campbell’s four three pointers. The Wirth twins gobbled up whatever came in down low, finishing with a combined 14 rebounds, helping Gonzaga out-rebound Texas Southern 43-32.

As normally is the case with these women, the defense made it impossible to get anything going for Texas Southern. The Tigers shot just 32 percent from the floor, and went just 3-of-18 from long range. Gonzaga harried Texas Southern into 21 turnovers, and only allowed just five assists on 19 made field goals. The Zags were everywhere, denying fastbreaks, diving for loose balls, and making life a living hell for Texas Southern on both ends of the court.

It would’ve been easy to look past this game. Gonzaga is off to one of its best starts ever in one of its hardest non-conference slates ever. Next week brings a road game at Wyoming and a welcome party in Spokane for No. 20 Missouri State.

Instead, it was a clean and mostly crisp game for Gonzaga. Perhaps the only bit of fair criticism comes at the hands of Jessie Loera and Kayleigh Truong. The two point guards turned the ball over nine times, however, much of that was offset by finishing with seven assists a piece.

Gonzaga’s next game is back on the road against Wyoming on Tuesday, Dec. 17.