Bulldog men’s, women’s teams off to winning starts

SPOKANE – As the Gonzaga men prepare for their final three games of non-conference play and the women tip off conference games, both squads find themselves in the AP Top 25 rankings.

The men’s team (8-3) checks in at No. 15 while the women’s team (9-2) ranks at No. 23 through their first nine games this season.

Gonzaga women

After winning two of three games in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, the Zags found themselves in the top 25 poll for the first time since the end of the 2020-2021 season. The Bulldogs defeated then-No. 6 Louisville in overtime, winning 79-67 courtesy of guard Kaylynne Truong’s 10 overtime points.

It was the highest-ranked win in program history, according to Gonzaga Athletics.

Following up the win with a loss to Marquette, Gonzaga was able to bounce back with another upset win and defeated No. 23 Tennessee 73-72. With 12.4 seconds remaining in the game, forward Yvonne Ejim scored a go-ahead basket to give the Zags their second top-25 win in three days.

In the weeks following, Gonzaga has won four of five games to close out the early season non-conference slate, the lone loss (84-63) coming on the road to No. 2 Stanford, a Final Four team from a year ago.

In the four recent wins, the Zag defense has held opponents to 51.5 points per game, stole the ball 7.5 times per game and out-rebounded opponents in each win.

Ejim leads the Zags in scoring with 17 points per game, followed by guard Bryanna Maxwell with 14.4 points per game and Truong with 13.7 points per game.

Gonzaga begins WCC play against Brigham Young at home on Saturday. Tip-off is at 2 p.m.

Gonzaga men

This is now the third season in a row where the Zags have faced at least four top-25 teams in the non-conference slate, though this year’s team is finding different results than years past.

Three of Gonzaga’s four top-25 matchups this year have been losses – a 19-point loss on the road against Texas, an 18-point loss to Purdue in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament and a one-point loss to Baylor in a neutral site game played in South Dakota. The win came against No. 4 Kentucky in a 88-72 win in Spokane where the Zags shot a 56.4% field goal percentage.

After a dip in his performance against Xavier and Baylor, forward Drew Timme has finished Gonzaga’s past three games with 29 points against Kent State, 22 points against Washington and 26 against Northern Illinois. The senior currently leads the Zags in points per game (20.5) and blocks per game (1.1). His 20.5 points per game average is the second-highest among players on top-25 ranked teams, second to Kansas’ Jalen Wilson.

The Bulldogs still have three non-conference games remaining on the schedule; a matchup with No. 4 Alabama in Birmingham on Saturday and back-to-back home games against Montana and Eastern Oregon before West Coast Conference play begins.

Alabama has already knocked off the No. 1 team in the country twice this season, defeating UNC in 103-101 in four overtimes in Portland and a 71-65 win over Houston on the Cougars’ home floor. The Crimson Tide average the seventh-most attempted threes per game in the country (29.8), but average 10.4 made threes per game.