Family's first for Joslyn

When Stanford WBB alum Joslyn Tinkle, ’13, returned to Maples Nov. 18, she was wearing a Gonzaga shirt and sitting behind the Gonzaga bench.

Why? Because her sister, Elle, a redshirt senior, was a starting guard for the Zags as they faced their Cardinal hosts. As it turned out, Elle also was her team’s second-high scorer in its 68-63 victory.

It wasn’t an easy game for either team. Gonzaga held one-point advantages, 15-16 and 27-28, at the end of the first and second quarters, respectively, but Stanford was ahead 51-46 after the third.

Sara, Joslyn recount recent doings

That’s when Joslyn and teammate Sara James, ’14, were interviewed. Joslyn said she’d been playing professionally overseas, but she’s taking this year off to keep up with her family. Besides Elle with Gonzaga, her dad, Wayne, is the men’s basketball coach at Oregon State, and her brother, Tres, is on the team.

Sara, who earned her master’s degree in the pediatric nurse practitioner program at Columbia in New York City, is now a nurse at Stanford Hospital.

Both were warmly greeted.

Head coach Tara VanDerveer kept the starting lineup intact with sophomore guard Marta Sniezek, senior guard Briana Roberson, junior guard Brittany McPhee, junior forward Kaylee Johnson and senior forward Erica “Bird” McCall.

Bri scored first for the Cardinal, and freshman forward Nadia Fingall was the first player off the bench, subbing for Kaylee. Next came senior guard Karlie Samuelson, subbing for Marta.

Five players do the heavy lifting

Altogether, Tara used 10 of the 12 available players, but Bird, Bri, Brittany, Karlie and sophomore forward Alanna Smith had the lion’s share of minutes.

Brittany led the team with 22 points plus eight rebounds, three assists and one block in 32 minutes.

Bird gets the team ready to run onto the floor.  Bob Drebin/Isiphotos

Bird added 17 points and 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. She also had one assist, one block and one steal in 34 minutes.

Also in double figures was Karlie with 10 points plus one rebound, three assists, one block and three steals in 37 minutes, but she fouled out late in the game.

Zags hot beyond the arc

Perhaps the most telling difference between the two teams is that the Zags were hot with their treys, making eight of 13, or 61.5 percent. Meanwhile, Stanford was cold, scoring on only three of 18, or 16.7 percent. Bird, Bri and Karlie each had one.

The team showed some improvement in turnovers, 11 for the game. However, the last one, an intercepted inbounds pass when Stanford had a final chance, proved to be a killer, combined with the Zags’ successful free throws after Stanford’s intentional fouls.

Overall, it was a tight game, but the home team couldn’t overcome cold shooting, 37.9 percent for the game, compared with the visitors’ 50 percent.

The team has a short time to regroup before hosting Cal State Northridge at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 20.