LAS VEGAS — The San Francisco women’s basketball team made just two of its 21 shot attempts in the first quarter against San Diego in their second-round matchup at the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Championship on Friday.
 
Thankfully for the Dons, they have a defense that can make up for offensive deficiencies. USF used that approach to generate 13 steals, force 22 turnovers and outscore the Toreros 24-1 off those takeaways in a 61-52 victory at Orleans Arena.
 
“The first half was a bit of a struggle offensively for both teams,” USF head coach Molly Goodenbour said. “We were standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, which isn’t very far from here. I’m not sure we could have hit the Grand Canyon, either team.”
 
The seventh-seeded Dons (17-13) shot just 1-for-11 to open the game but their defense held up throughout. USF advances to a third-round game against No. 6 seed Pepperdine on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. 
 
Goodenbour was grateful for the victory but not entirely unfamiliar with the way things unfolded. “We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve gone through some rough patches with our offense, but it’s our defense, getting hands on balls, being able to force some things in transition.”
 
Senior guard Mara Neira, who had five of the Dons’ 13 steals, said there was no panic after the teams emerged from the first quarter tied at 9-9. “When we struggle offensively, we emphasize getting good stops and good defensive possessions and getting transition buckets after turnovers,” she said. “I didn’t know we were 24-1 . . . that’s amazing.”
 
San Diego first-year head coach Blanche Alverson said the Toreros (11-22) made great progress over the season, but acknowledged that playing a second day in a row against a defense as aggressive as the Dons was a challenge.
 
“We obviously struggled, we turned the ball over too much today,” she said. “They’re a man-to-man team and they have really tremendous ball pressure. They really locked in on our scorers and our guards and being able to bring a lot of traffic to them. I didn’t think we handled it well at times.”
 
USF’s Aina Cargol, a freshman from Spain, added four steals and helped defend San Diego senior Hallie Rhodes, who had 22 points their 66-62 opening-round win over Saint Mary’s. Rhodes managed only six points as the Dons held USD to 32-percent shooting. 
 
CANDY IS SWEET IN THE PAINT: USF sophomore guard Candy Edokpaigbe, a native of Italy and transfer from Seattle U, helped rescue the Dons’ offense, scoring 25 points. But the first-team all-conference selection had her owns problems early, missing her first five shots.
 
“It’s basketball. We’re going to miss shots,” she said. “The most important thing is to get your mindset right and think about the next play. I think we did that really well. The third and fourth quarters we have a really offensive mindset and we made big shots, every single one of us.”
 
USF actually shot a respectable 45 percent from the field. Edokpaigbe, who entered the game averaging just under 21 points in her previous seven games, was almost unstoppable when she got the ball in the paint.
 
“She kind of wills her way to the rim and wills the ball in there,”Goodenbour said. “Sometimes she just contorts herself in so many ways and steps through. She’s very naturally developed into a pretty gifted player when she gets herself down there. She’s strong and she’s graceful and she’s on balance. She’s able to score very effectively when she gets herself in that position.”
 
Neira said she never has doubts about what her teammate can provide for the offense. “I know every time I see Candy posting up I’m going to throw it to her. Because even if she misses it, she might get the (offensive rebound) or she might get fouled,” Neira said. “Something good is going to happen. I know she struggled at the beginning today but I had confidence that it was going to come to her.”
 
NO TEARS FROM THE TOREROS: Alverson, who came to San Diego after serving as associate head coach at Georgia Tech, was proud of the progress her program made in her first season as a head coach. 
 
USD’s 11-22 record represented an improvement of four wins over the seasons before, and eight of their conference defeats were by single-digit margins. Alverson measured the team’s progress in other ways.
 
“I think we’ve a lot to be proud of our growth this year,” she said. “We’ve been process-driven all year long and I think we’ve really achieved that goal. We’ve improved, I think, in every single area of the game. We established our culture.”
 
Freshman guard Olivia Owens led the Toreros with 16 points and seven rebounds. 
 
VILLA STEADIES WSU IN VICTORY: Junior guard Ele Villa delivered her second consecutive 22-point game in Las Vegas, but she did more than that to help spark Washington State’s 82-76 second-round victory over Pacific.
 
This was the 18th career 20-point game for the native of Milan, Italy, but the first where she also dealt at least seven assists. “She’s a really good player,” said Pacific head coach Bradley Davis. “She’s started to get more people involved down the stretch of the season and that’s why they’re better than the first time we saw them. But she can score when she needs to. There were times she needed to tonight, and she did.”
 
The ninth-seeded Cougars (9-24) will play in Saturday’s third round against  No. 5 seed Portland (17-13), which defeated WSU in both meetings this season. Tipoff is noon at Orleans Arena.
 
Villa, a first-team all-conference selection, had 16 points at halftime as the Cougars jumped out to a 37-18 lead. She was more the facilitator in the second half but with two minutes left and the Tigers having pulled within 69-61 she called her own number.
 
Standing 20 feet from the basket, Villa took a few seconds to assess the situation, then drove hard toward the paint and converted the shot. “I feel confident right now because I’ve experienced a lot of different kinds of defenses out there,” she said. “I just want to stay calm and just try to make the right decision and the right play for my teammates. Whatever needs to be done.”
 
Freshman Kendra Koorits, who scored 15 points, said Villa is a security blanket her teammates appreciate. “I think it’s amazing that we have someone like her,” the Estonia native said. “When we’re in trouble, we can get the ball to her and she can do everything. She’s a good team player as well. We all trust her with the ball.”
 
Villa played nearly 38 minutes which WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge said illustrates how important she is to the team. “She hates to lose but you don’t really see it in her,” Ethridge said. “She wants the ball in her hands and she’s not bothered by pressure. The bigness of the moment, she’s not bothered by.”
 
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: The Cougars forged their 19-point halftime lead on the strength of a defense that limited Pacific (11-19) to 25-percent shooting, including 0-for-11 from the 3-point arc. 
 
“Just thrilled that we pulled this out,” Ethridge said. “I thought our first half was phenomenal. That obviously separated us. We played such good defense. We knew they would not score just 18 points in the second half. 
 
“Foul trouble got us into trouble — they got a lot of free points at the free throw line. That really changed the momentum of the game. I just like the fact that our kids found a way to win.”
 
The Tigers, led by 21 points and 10 rebounds from Sydney Ward and 20 points from Daria Nesterov, battled back to within five points in the final seconds but could not get over the hump. 
 
Ward credited an emotional halftime speech by assistant coach Johanna Subasic helped turn things. “Our halftime speech really put that fire back under us,” she said of a second-half performance in which the Tigers scored 58 points.