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When Kelly Graves brought his Lady Bulldogs back to Spokane after the grueling competition of the Paradise Jam, he knew a tough regional test awaited his team in Moscow, Idaho. Sure enough, the Lady Vandals of Idaho squeezed out a 7 point win behind the dynamic guard Leilani Mitchell. And again, Gonzaga's sporadic guard play went cold and put all the scoring pressure on the frontcourt, primarily Stephanie Hawk and Anne Bailey.
Meanwhile in the Kennel Mark Few's squad took on a feisty Portland State team, played flat for most of it before opening a 22 point lead and going flat once again to let the visitors within 7 before finally winning by 9. It was a game with few positives, particularly on defense.
The women traveled to Reno, Nevada, for the Nugget Classic and, behind 24 points from Stephanie Hawk, powered their way to an easy victory over Northwestern State. Host Nevada was upset by Northern Colorado, so the Bulldogs met Northern Colorado and, again, won quite easily, winning the four-team tournament with MVP honors going to Stephanie Hawk.
The men capped off the week's action at Hec Ed in Seattle. With Derek Raivio going down early in the game with a back injury, joining the "Injured Reserve List" with fellow starters Erroll Knight and Josh Heytvelt, the Zags were basically bringing a knife to a gunfight. In leiu of a true outside shooting threat, the Husky defense packed it inside to limit J.P. Batista and forced Adam Morrison and a host of reserves to get it done. And still the Bulldogs almost pulled it out, catching the Huskies with 11:00 to go and exchanging leads until the final 90 seconds.
GU Nation wishes a speedy recovery to Rachel Kane (ACL), Derek Raivio (back), Erroll Knight (knee) and Josh Heytvelt (ankle).