SPOKANE, Wash. --- The No. 21 Gonzaga Bulldogs took advantage of a slow start by the Portland Pilots to build an early lead before prevailing 75-43 in a West Coast Conference women's basketball game played on Saturday afternoon at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Alex Fowler led the Pilots with 11 points.
 
The Bulldogs (10-2, 5-0 WCC) scored the game's first 11 points to surge ahead. Portland's Maddie Muhlheim ended the run with a three-pointer, which briefly cut the deficit to single digits, but it was still an 11-point game after the first quarter. Fowler tried to keep the Pilots within reach with a lay-up down low early in the second, and the Pilots were still within 14 points when Haylee Andrews cut across the lane for a lay-in moments later.
 
But Gonzaga took a 36-17 lead into the halftime locker room, and they never looked back in the second half en route to the win.
 
Fowler was also Portland's top rebounder with six boards, and Andrews added 10 points. Emme Sheared was productive off the bench, chipping in with six points, and Liana Kaitu'u also scored six points in a supporting role.
 
It was a tough shooting game for the Pilots, who drop their first conference game to fall to 3-1 in the WCC and are now 6-4 overall. Portland combined to shoot just 33.3 percent from the field.
 
The Zags were led by Jenn Wirth, who recorded another double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and her work in the paint helped Gonzaga shoot 48.3 percent overall. Her twin sister LeeAnne contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.
 
Last March at the WCC Championships in Las Vegas, it was the Pilots who upended the then 11th-ranked Bulldogs in the tournament's semifinals. Portland would go on to claim their first WCC title since 1997 by defeating San Diego in the championship game
 
Next the Pilots travel to the Bay Area for a pair of WCC games, beginning with visit to San Francisco to play the Dons on Thursday evening. Tip-off at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center is scheduled for 6 p.m.