Gonzaga women must limit turnovers vs. Ole Miss to pull off NCAA tournament upset

MINNEAPOLIS – It’s no secret what could be the Gonzaga women’s basketball team’s undoing at the NCAA tournament.

It cost the Zags in seven of their nine losses this season. And they’ve come in bunches even in victory.

In a word, turnovers.

Ole Miss will do all it can to stir the pot for the Zags. No. 12 seed Gonzaga (24-9) and the fifth-seeded Rebels (23-11) face off Friday at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena. Tipoff is at 12:30 p.m. and will air on ESPN2.

To Gonzaga’s credit, it has finished the season well. In the last 10 games, the Zags have limited their turnovers to single digits four times.

The Bulldogs are averaging 17.2 per game and 12 times they’ve committed 20 or more including a season-high 26 on three occasions.

Senior guard Ines Bettencourt said Friday’s game boils down to two things.

“Not turning the ball over and staying connected,” Bettencourt said. “We’ve just got to keep building on that.”

“All season long it’s been turnovers,” sophomore guard Allie Turner said. “We practice that every day, every week – even more this week. That’s our key to winning games, probably our key to winning this game too.”

Believers

Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said back in December she hoped her team would believe it could be good as much as the coaches did.

“They’ve seen themselves succeed. That builds success, right?” Fortier said. “They’ve done things that no other Gonzaga teams have done. That’s where you build experience, that’s where you build belief and confidence in yourself. I just hope we’re going to be able to go out and play like it (Friday) … and see what happens.”

Future is now

Fortier isn’t looking any further ahead than Friday.

Her team will have all it can handle with Ole Miss.

There’s no denying, though, that the future is bright for Gonzaga if it can keep its roster intact. The Zags should return 11 of 12 players and add 6-foot-2 high school signee Abby Lusk from Pocatello, Idaho.

“We’ve never had a younger team or a more inexperienced team at Gonzaga,” Fortier said. “We’ve spent this entire year trying to teach culture … how we play as a program.”

Fortier isn’t content with just getting to the NCAA tournament.

“That was something that was ingrained in (former athletic director) Mike Roth when he used to talk to our department … was never be satisfied,” Fortier said. “We want to make noise. We want to do our best. We think our best is a pretty high level. So we’re not just happy to be here.”

‘Beast’

Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin was asked what she thought of 6-foot-3 Gonzaga freshman forward Lauren Whittaker.

“Lauren Whittaker is a beast,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I just love how Lisa (Fortier) uses her. I love what she’s able to do – from shooting the three, she’s a three-level scorer. We don’t necessarily have a post player like that in our league, so we’re going to have to kind of treat her like a guard when she’s on the perimeter. And when she’s inside, we’ve got to try to do what we can to not allow her to get deep seals. I’m a basketball fan, so as soon as I started watching film, I’m like, ‘man, this kid is incredible.’ Looking forward to seeing how we compete against her tomorrow.”

Can Gonzaga win?

The Zags have been in three previous No. 5/No. 12 games as the higher seed and won once.

So they can win, no question. They did when they got their first NCAA tournament win, in 2009, beating No. 5 Xavier handily, 74-59, in Seattle.

Gonzaga also has been the No. 5 seed four times, going 2-2.

The Zags have been given an 8.6% chance to win against Ole Miss and are a 13.5- to 14.5-point underdog in sportsbooks.

Make no mistake about it, though: If Gonzaga wins, it will be an upset. The Zags haven’t played a team as good as Ole Miss this season. The Rebels come from the SEC, a conference that landed 10 teams in the NCAA tournament.

Ole Miss finished conference play in a four-way tie for sixth. All those teams and the five that finished ahead – league champ South Carolina, Texas, Vanderbilt, LSU and Oklahoma – are playing this weekend.