Taylor Thompson drives past an Idaho defender.
Dalton Runberg / The Collegian
The women’s basketball team lucked out Thursday night despite not playing at the tempo it wanted to, prevailing 76-68 over Idaho for its 10th-straight win.
“Idaho gave a good effort tonight,” said head coach Adrian Wiggins. “They controlled the tempo for most of the game and that was a problem for us.”
The ‘Dogs started off slow, trailing the Vandals 4-0, before four straight layups spawned a 20-4 Bulldog scoring run in what appeared to be another routine victory for Fresno State.
But the 16-point lead quickly diminished as the ‘Dogs fell victim to the whistle, committing 10 team fouls in the first half alone.
“The clock stopped a lot. The whistle blew a lot and I feel that impacted the pace of our game,” Wiggins said.
Senior Blakely Goldberg fell into foul trouble early, committing three first-half fouls by the eight-minute mark, forcing Wiggins to bench the defender the rest of the half. Goldberg fouled out in the second half, finishing with four points in just 13 minutes on the floor, well below her per-game averages for both categories.
“There were a lot of times tonight here the whistle blew, the clocked stopped and the ball wasn’t moving,” Wiggins reiterated. “And it’s hard to play basketball that way at the pace we want to.”
Despite not playing at the regular tempo, Fresno State forced 27 turnovers, 13 of which were steals.
The Idaho defense forced the ‘Dogs on their paws as Fresno State shot a dismal 20 percent from 3-point range, an area the team is usually solid from.
“We just didn’t have a good pace time,” Wiggins said of the team’s poor shooting percentage. “It wasn’t the shot of choice, so we were forcing it a little bit.”
Sophomore Ki-Ki Moore stepped up for the ‘Dogs in the second half, scoring 15 of her 23 points after the break. Moore netted 23 points, 11 rebounds and five steals, all game highs in her sixth double-double performance of the season.
Junior Rosie Moult and sophomore Taylor Thompson both scored in double-digits with 13 and 15 points, respectively.
Fresno State is now 21-4 overall and 9-0 in the Western Athletic Conference and Hawaii fell to 8-18 and 3-7 in the WAC.
The ‘Dogs will put their 10-game win streak on the line Saturday as they host second-place Utah State at 7 p.m.