After winning the last two games against Utah State and San Jose State, the Fresno State women’s basketball team claimed the Mountain West regular-season title ”” the third championship in program history.
Last Wednesday, the Bulldogs were caught in a back-and-forth battle against the Spartans. In the final minute of the game, San Jose State guard Fieme’a Hafoka drained a three-pointer to give the Spartans a two-point lead, 76-74.
After Fresno State guard Hanna Cavinder turned the ball over, the ‘Dogs’ winning streak was on the line as they were forced to foul to extend the game. With over 30 seconds left in the game, Fresno State used all three of their fouls to give and had one more chance to steal the ball.
With no fouls left, Bulldogs forward Maddi Utti picked off the inbound pass from Spartans guard Ayzhiana Basallo and passed it to Cavinder. In transition, Cavinder passed it to Bulldogs forward Wytalla Motta who hit the game-tying layup with 25 seconds left.
After the Bulldogs made a stop on the defensive end, they called a 30-second timeout to draw a play and substituted junior Bree Delaney. On the inbounds pass, Delaney threw an alley-oop pass to Utti under the basket, putting the Bulldogs up 78-76.
After the game, Fresno State head coach Jaime White shared her emotions about the win.
“I thought looking out and seeing the crowd, the kids, hoop club members, the students that came out and supported us and the band who is with us day-in and day-out ”” they are all apart of this,” White said. “This is their championship just as much as it’s ours.”
On Feb. 12, Fresno State only secured a share of the championship, but they secured the championship in the win against the Aggies on Saturday. The Bulldogs shot 48.4 percent (31-of-64) from the field and held the Aggies to 34.8 percent (24-of-69).
Fresno State built up a double-digit lead at the end of the first half, 42-31, and continued to build up their lead to 18. The ‘Dogs held a huge advantage in the paint with 46 points inside to the Aggies’ 20.
The win moved the Bulldogs’ winning streak to 14 and marked their 19th win when scoring over 70 points.