GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The University of North Dakota women's basketball team dropped an 83-45 decision to Gonzaga on Tuesday night in non-conference play.
Gonzaga (2-2) made its first Sweet 16 appearance in school history last season and the Bulldogs looked primed to make another deep run into the NCAA Tournament after their performance here at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
Junior Katelan Redmon scored a career-high 28 points to lead the Bulldogs, who received votes in both the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll and Associated Press polls last week. Redmon went a blistering 12-for-17 from the field to lead all players in scoring.
Freshman Megan Lauck (Arden Hills, Minn.) was the top scorer for the Sioux with 10 points.
Senior Mallory Youngblut (Davenport, Iowa) hit a 3-pointer to make it a 9-8 contest at 17:15, but that would be as close as the home team would come to the Bulldogs. Gonzaga opened the game making nine of its first 12 shots from the floor and used a 12-0 run to jump ahead 21-8. Redmon tallied 16 first-half points for Gonzaga on 7-for-10 shooting from the floor.
"We are going to get back to the basics," UND head coach Gene Roebuck said. "What I came away with from this game is that we need to play man-to-man defense and not rely on the zone. I am going to put players on the court that can play it. I thought we did a better job defensively in the second half when we went to playing the man-to-man."
The Bulldogs would lead by as many as 23 points in the first half and take a 48-26 advantage into the locker room. Senior Courtney Vandersloot, who was a preseason Wooden Award candidate for the nation's top player, had nine of Gonzaga's 16 assists in the first half.
Vandersloot finished with 10 points and 12 assists as Gonzaga shot 51.5 percent from the floor for the game, while holding the Sioux to just a 24.5 percent clip (13-for-53).
UND suffered through extended field-goal droughts in both halves and shot just 4-for-25 from the field in the final 20 minutes. Sophomore Nicole Smart (Ada, Minn.) ended an eight-minute-plus drought in the first half with a jumper at the 8:50 mark, while junior Charnay Mothershed (Phoenix, Ariz.) had the only six points of the half for the Sioux on a pair of 3-pointers until Allyssa Wall (Sioux City, S.D.) sunk a free throw with 11:50 to play in the contest.
Mothershed finished with seven points and three rebounds after sitting out the first half.
Turnovers also plagued the Sioux as the Bulldogs forced the home team into 27 miscues, which directly resulted in 28 Gonzaga.
The Sioux (1-2) will take to the road for the first time this season when they travel to Wisconsin to play Green Bay on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m.
- Go Sioux -
