PORTLAND, Ore. --- Trailing by a sizable margin in the fourth quarter, the Portland Pilots made a run late to climb back into the game against 18th-ranked Gonzaga, but Bulldogs recovered and held on for a 79-61 win in a West Coast Conference women's basketball game played on Sunday evening at the Chiles Center. Haylee Andrews had a huge game for the Pilots, scoring a season-high 25 points.
 
The win is the 12th in a row for the Bulldogs, who stay perfect in the WCC (8-0) and improve to 13-2 overall. The Pilots are now 7-6 on the season and 4-3 in the conference.
 
The first quarter was close as Alex Fowler went to work for the Pilots, first finishing with a strong move down low before converting a lay-up off a nice pass from Keeley Frawley to keep the Pilots within five. The Zags then scored seven straight points, but the Pilots answered with an 8-0 run of their own. During the surge, Emme Shearer drained a three-pointer, and Andrews provided three points the hard way after getting fouled while making a lay-in. At the end of the period, Meek buried a shot from beyond the arc just before the buzzer, and Gonzaga's edge was only 22-17 going to the second.
 
Portland hung around to begin the next frame, with Kelsey Lenzie feeding Fowler in the post for two, which at the time cut the deficit to just four points. From there, the Zags took advantage of some cold Portland shooting, and a 19-2 run gave Gonzaga a 46-25 lead at the break.
 
During the first four minutes of the second half both teams went scoreless, and the drought was broken by Gonzaga's Jill Townsend, who extended the Bulldog lead with a lay-in. Rose Pflug provided a tough lay-up mid-way through the quarter, but it was 61-35 game with only the fourth left to play.
 
Andrews provided perhaps the highlight of the night in the fourth quarter on an in-bounds play. The junior guard threw it in off the back of a Gonzaga player, collected the loose ball, and finished with a lay-in while getting fouled. She'd cap the traditional three-point play with a free throw, and it sparked a run that allowed the Pilots to climb back into the game.
 
Lauren Walker produced a three-point play during the outburst, Shearer connected on a turn-around jumper, Meek drilled a three-pointer, and when Andrews scored again down low, the Pilots' run had reached 15-2 and it was only an 11-point game.
 
Moments later the deficit was still 11 when Andrews provided another bucket in the paint with 3:37 left, but time would soon run out on the Pilots as the Zags held on for the win.
 
11 of Andrews' points came at the free throw line as she becomes the first Pilots to connect on 10 or more from the charity stripe since she accomplished the feat a little more than year ago against Pacific. She made 13 free throws against the Tigers.
 
Fowler also scored in double digits, recording 13 points, and Meek nearly matched her season-high with 10 points. Earlier this month she had 12 against Saint Mary's.
 
The Pilots did well to keep the Wirth twins mostly in-check, with Jenn scoring 14 points and LeeAnne adding just eight. Kayleigh Truong led the Bulldogs with 17 points, and Jill Townsend became a 1,000-point career scorer with 11 on Sunday.
 
The Pilots next head back on the road for two more WCC games in Northern California this week. On Thursday, the Pilots will be in Moraga, Calif., to face the Saint Mary's Gaels at the UCU Pavilion, with tip-off scheduled for 1 p.m.