SPOKANE, Wash. --- The score remained close all game long and Holly Blades scored a team-high 16 points, but in the end the Gonzaga Bulldogs pulled away in the fourth quarter to claim a 67-55 win over the Portland Pilots on Saturday afternoon at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Van Loo added 12 points and seven assists for Portland.
 
The Pilots (3-12, 1-3 WCC) led in the first quarter, including when Van Loo knocked down a three-pointer to make it 10-8. Moments later Ashley Gray converted down low to hand the Pilots a 12-9 advantage, but the Zags (11-4, 2-2 WCC) scored six unanswered to end the frame and claim a three-point lead.
 
Gonzaga stretched it to an 11-point game in the second, but the Pilots responded. Darian Slaga recorded a traditional three-point play, and Corissa Turley ended the half with a lay-up to make it 32-25 in favor of Gonzaga at the break.
 
The Pilots climbed even closer in the third period, and when Van Loo made a steal at one end before going coast-to-coast for an uncontested lay-up, Portland had pulled even 37-37. The Zags would try to pull away from there, but the Pilots refused to falter, and Blades buried a three-pointer just before the buzzer to cut the deficit to just six points going to the fourth.
 
Blades then began the final quarter with another bucket from deep, and just like that it was a three-point game. Again the Zags tried to build their lead, and again the Pilots had an answer, this time in the form of a three-pointer from Julie Spencer that made it 55-50 with 6:00 left to play. But that's when Gonzaga claimed the contest for good with a 9-2 run covering the next five minutes, pushing their lead back to double figures.
 
The Zags won the game at the free throw line and on the glass as GU out-rebounding the Pilots 42-26, which lead to a 19-4 edge in second chance points. Portland out-shot Gonzaga 41.8 percent to 37.0 percent, but the Bulldogs went 22-for-28 from the foul line, while the Pilots were just two of five.
 
Blades had four of Portland's seven three-pointers.
 
Next week the Pilots go to Moraga, Calif., to face the Saint Mary's Gaels on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.