SANTA CLARA–””Opening the season on Friday night, the Fresno State Bulldogs collected their first win in a mistake-filled 74-54 victory over the Santa Clara University Broncos.

Although first-game jitters were possibly the main cause of the ‘Dogs first-half woes, the team struggled early on to execute coach Adrian Wiggins play calling.

Early in the game, the ‘Dogs traded steals and sloppy turnovers with the Broncos, as neither team could find any offensive rhythm. After the first timeout on the floor was taken 10 minutes into the match, the score stood at 7-6 in favor of Fresno State.

After the timeout, the ‘Dogs started to make a quick run, led by seniors Jaleesa Ross and Hayley Munro.

With the first half winding down, Ross made a few quick steals against the Broncos and quickly brought the ball up past half court to find a wide open Munro, who was waiting to drain a three-point shot.

These multiple plays brought the score to 33-23 at the end of the first half.

Opening up the second half of play, the Broncos made a run of their scoring on two quick lay ups and drawing a foul to complete a small comeback narrowing the gap to 35-30. Then the two teams began a seesaw battle as each side traded baskets with less 12 minutes remaining in the game, the ‘Dogs began to pull away from their opponent.

Fresno State player, Marnique Arnold started to assert herself as she finished with a strong overall performance collecting 12 points in 22 minutes of playing time as a reserve.

In addition, down the stretch, forward Hayley Munro hit a couple of crucial three pointers and the Bulldogs were able to cruise toward a non-conference victory.

With a comfortable 20 point lead, Wiggins was able to insert younger and inexperienced players like true freshman Alex Furr into the game to get them some quality playing time.

Although this move by Wiggins was good in the perspective of trying to let some of his younger athletes gain confidence, Santa Clara was still trying to mount a comeback which led to Furr being easily pushed around.

At the end of the game the score stood 74-54 and Wiggins’ squad came away with their first win of the early season. The ‘Dogs played a good game but decided that they still needed to work on a few kinks in order to continue to perfect their playing ability on the court as a team-first effort.

“I think overall we played good, but they are still some things we can work on,” Arnold said.” Being that it was our first game, everyone had jitters. But if we go watch film see what we need to work on as far as defense and help rotation we should be fine.”

Fresno State returns home this Wednesday for their first home-court game of the season against the Cal Poly Mustangs.