With Success, Gonzaga Makes a Case for Equality

Given the presence of a nationally ranked basketball team in a small college town, it is no surprise that Gonzaga’s new $25-million McCarthey Athletic Center is often packed to the rafters on game night.

It is a common sight for the men’s team, a West Coast Conference monster and burgeoning national power. But the Bulldog women are beginning to experience the feeling as well.

A near-capacity crowd of 5,835 for a recent home game against Portland -- the largest crowd ever for a women’s WCC game -- let Gonzaga Coach Kelly Graves know that his team has carved out its own identity.

“I was excited for our seniors,” Graves said. “They were here when 300 was a nice crowd. To see that growth is a testament to them.”

In five years, Graves has taken a struggling program and turned it into a champion. With a program-best 25-2 record, Gonzaga takes a 21-game winning streak into tonight’s WCC tournament first-round game against Portland at Santa Clara’s Leavey Center as it makes a push for its first appearance in the NCAA tournament.

One of the teams the Bulldogs will have to get past is defending tournament champion Loyola Marymount. The second-seeded Lions (15-12) finished five games behind Gonzaga and open against San Diego.

Pepperdine, 11-16 in Julie Rousseau’s first year as coach, are seeded fourth and will play fifth-seeded St. Mary’s. Santa Clara, the host team, will play San Francisco in the other game.

The Bulldogs’ streak -- tied for the nation’s longest with Temple -- includes the first undefeated run through the WCC since Portland in 1996-97. The wild success is new, but the expectations were high for a team that narrowly lost to Loyola in last year’s tournament final.

“Basically, it’s the same team that we had last year, and that kind of experience just lends itself to a better product,” Graves said. “The fact that we did lose that close game was a great motivator in the off-season.”

Point guard Shannon Mathews and forwards Ashley Burke and Raeanna Jewell, all seniors, are the core of the team. Burke, who averages 14.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, is the team leader in those categories, but it is Mathews who makes the Bulldogs go.

Mathews, a former star at Riverside North High and niece of former San Francisco coach Phil Mathews, scores nearly 12 points per game and averages a conference-leading 6.6 assists. Also a top scholar-athlete, she was selected as the league’s player of the year Monday.

“She’s the smartest player I’ve ever had in my 18 years of coaching,” Graves said. “Just a high basketball IQ. Basketball is all around her, and you call tell it on the court.”

Graves, 42, came to Gonzaga from St. Mary’s, where he led the Gaels to 20 wins in each of his three seasons and one NCAA tournament berth. Despite the success in Moraga, Graves coveted the job so he could move his wife, Mary, and their three sons back to her native Spokane.

Gonzaga Athletic Director Mike Roth made the final selling point.

“The first thing he said was, ‘I want our women’s team to be as good as our men’s team,’ ” Graves said.

With an impressive freshman class coming in and the anticipated return of all-WCC junior forward Ashley Anderson, who tore a ligament in her left knee in December, Gonzaga may secure a permanent spot at the top of the conference.

Just like the men.

“I think we have a chance to be pretty good for a while,” Graves said.