Gonzaga women unable to complete comeback against Indiana, lose 76-72

Nov. 28—The Gonzaga women's basketball team has traded blows with every team in its first seven games.

A five-minute stretch to open the second half, though, put the Bulldogs in an 11-point hole they couldn't recover from Friday.

Three times Gonzaga got within a point, but the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers prevailed 76-72 in the Coconut Hoops Classic at Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero, Florida.

Gonzaga freshman forward Jaiden Haile completed a three-point play with 20 seconds to go to pull the Bulldogs within 73-72.

A controversial situation occurred when it appeared Gonzaga sophomore guard Allie Turner was trying to foul Indiana's leading scorer Shay Ciezki in the key with 16 seconds to go. But the officials ruled an attempted shot by Ciezki after the whistle was good and awarded her a free throw. She made the free throw to put the Hoosiers up by the final margin.

"That was a poor call in my opinion," Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. "I thought Allie fouled her long before she continued on. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong. You don't get to keep dribbling and keep going after the foul is called. I thought it was poorly done and affected the game. Coupled with the possession prior to that (with) Lauren (Whittaker) having an and-one that they didn't call a foul on. We just got the made basket. There's a couple things like that that affect the outcome of the game."

Gonzaga (3-4) gets a day off before facing Marquette (4-2) Sunday to conclude play in Florida. Tipoff is at 8 a.m. Pacific.

Tenth-ranked Iowa State (8-0) beat Marquette 84-73.

The Zags played one of their better halves of the season in the opening 20 minutes.

In the middle of it were Whittaker, a freshman redshirt forward, and Haile. Whittaker had 19 of her game-high 27 points in the first half and Haile, from Fargo, North Dakota, added four points, six rebounds (four offensive) and three assists off the bench.

Haile finished with 10 points and nine rebounds (seven offensive).

After falling behind 49-38 midway in the third quarter, the Zags got within four which included seven straight points from Turner.

Indiana led 57-51 going into the fourth.

Two 3-pointers from Turner sandwiched around a basket from Haile allowed Gonzaga to get within 66-65 with 2:46 remaining.

Gonzaga, which had committed 22 turnovers in each of its last two games, played under better control Friday, finishing with just 11 turnovers.

"There was a lot of good to see with our team," Fortier said. "We took care of the ball against a team that was fouling and grabbing and holding us the entire time. They play very physical basketball. It was called pretty loosely at times. They called some fouls, but they literally could have called one every time on us trying to get open and come off ball screens. Our team executed through some of that."

The Bulldogs won the battle in the second-chance points, outscoring the Hoosiers 22-10.

Turner, who had to sit out six minutes in the first half with two fouls and played most of the second half with three, finished with 21 points. She made 4 of 7 from 3-point range.

Indiana (7-0) was led by Ciezki, who had 24 points.