The Fresno State women’s basketball team improved its win streak to seven Saturday with a dominant 70-46 home win over Air Force.
The Bulldogs (11-7, 7-0) started the game on a 25-7 run and got up 41-17 at half but their momentum came to a halt in the third quarter, where the Falcons (0-18, 0-7) went on a run of their own.
“I really thought we were focused and ran our stuff well,” Fresno State head coach Jaime White said. “We had good intensity the whole first half and felt good about that. W kind of had a bump in the third quarter, we were trying to play some people and run some different things. I thought Air Force never went away though and kept playing hard.”
Air Force’s 7-0 run to begin the third quarter provided them with some momentum and made a small dent in the Bulldogs’ lead, forcing them to call a timeout and regroup.
Coming out of the early, third-quarter timeout, Fresno State bounced back and continued to roll using its efficient shooting, which was present all afternoon along with its suffocating defense, making it difficult for the Falcons to establish any sort of rhythm.
“Really our focus was about defense today,” White said. “I thought we did a pretty good job. We held them in the first half right at about what we wanted to. You just have to kind of focus on something else besides the other team, you have to focus on yourselves. Defensively, we just wanted to play good defense whether it was man or zone.”
Offensively, the Bulldogs converted on 24-of-50 attempts (48 percent) and on the defensive end, forced 14 turnovers.
Four Bulldogs recorded double figures with freshman Breanne Knishka leading all scorers with 15 points and sophomore center Bego Faz Davalos added her ninth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“It was a good win,” Knishka said. “I think the whole team was focused and everyone was on the same page.”
The Bulldogs stand alone atop the Mountain West Conference standings, with a half-game lead on Colorado State (16-1, 6-0).
“We’re just going to have to be focused on getting better,” White said. “And [focus on] the little things that have got us here and keep moving.”