The Fresno State women’s basketball team lost its final home game of the season 93-89 on Friday against the New Mexico Lobos in overtime.
The ‘Dogs now head to Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference tournament with records of 16-13 overall and 11-7 in conference play.
Junior guard Candice White started the game two points shy of hitting 1,000 career points with the ‘Dogs. Within the first few minutes of the game, White quickly surpassed that milestone.
“This just kind of comes with playing after a while,” White said. “It’s nice to have [1,000 points], but I’m just focusing on the [Mountain West] tournament,” White said.
Fresno State maintained control of the game when it took a commanding eight-point lead in the first period. By the end of the period, the Lobos trailed 28-23.
The second quarter began how the first ended, with the Bulldogs in control and the Lobos playing catch up. The ‘Dogs had an amazing performance from the 3-point arc in the second period, and with four minutes left in the half Fresno State had a 17-point lead.
New Mexico kept its composure and closed in on the ‘Dogs’ lead to get within 10 points by the end of the half.
White along with fellow guard Aly Gamez and forward Maddi Utti had a great first half, scoring 19, nine and eight points, respectively.
In the third quarter, the Lobos came out with more energy as they gave up the ball less than in the first half. By the middle of the third period, New Mexico had cut its deficit to five points.
Fresno State was outscored by five points in the third period, but still maintained the lead 67-62 going into the fourth quarter.
In the last 10 minutes of the game, the Bulldogs’ lead was cut down drastically to a one-point game. Fresno State caught a second wind halfway through the period and regained a 10-point lead.
The ‘Dogs were unable to score a point in the last four minutes of the fourth quarter, letting the Lobos close the point-gap to eventually tie the game in the last minute.
The game went into overtime where the Bulldogs seemed to run out of energy. They were never able to regain the lead. Fresno State missed many opportunities late in overtime to get close to New Mexico’s five-point lead.
The final score favored New Mexico, 93-89, leaving a bad feeling for the Bulldogs who saw a win at home slip away in the end.
White was the top performer for Fresno State with 32 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Gamez and Utti also had good games with 17 and 12 points respectively.
After the game, head coach Jaime White mentioned that she felt like the team didn’t defend as well as it should have and that it had a good opportunity to win the game.
“I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win…we’re just a little ways from being pretty good and being able to take the win,” White said. “We don’t have a lot of time. We have to prepare for the tournament. We have to refocus and get to work.”
