Fresno State guard Taylor Thompson tallied a team-high 24 points and four assists as the women’s basketball team held off the Boise State Broncos 78-72 in an overtime showdown in Boise.
“This is a win and it is so hard to win this time of the year, especially on the road,” Fresno State coach Raegan Pebley said. “We’re going to really focus on the positive — we got a road win in a very important game against a team that was second place in our conference.”
Fresno State outscored Boise State 10-4 in the overtime period, with Thompson netting eight of the Bulldogs’ points. The Broncos were 2 of 7 in field-goal attempts.
“We went to a defense in overtime that we hadn’t used yet, and I think that threw them off a bit,” Pebley said.
The Bulldogs outscored the Broncos 41-23 in the first half. The Broncos only shot 28.1 percent from the field, compared with the Bulldogs’ 51.7.
In the second half, the Broncos looked like a different team. They went on a 15-6 run in the first seven minutes of the stanza to cut the Bulldogs’ lead in half. Three-point shooting increased for Boise State. After going 0 for 7 from behind the arc, it hit four in two minutes to trail by one, 48-47, with 11:10 left to play.
Boise State guard Yaiza Rodriguez, who tallied all of her 15 points in the second stanza, nailed a jumper with 17 seconds left to tie the game at 68 and send it into overtime.
Overall, the Bulldogs outshot the Broncos (45.5 percent to 39.7). Moriah Faulk came off the bench and earned her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Bree Farley (13) and Alex Furr (10) also scored in double digits for Fresno State.
“I thought [Thompson] and Furr were very aggressive for us. They did exactly what we needed to do in overtime to get our opportunities at the rim and at the foul line,” Pebley said.
With the win, the Bulldogs swept the season series against Boise State.
Fresno State will remain on the road and visit San Diego State on Saturday before returning home on Friday for the regular-season finale against San Jose State.