The Fresno State women’s basketball team (17-12) lost 67-66 to Air Force on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Save Mart Center. Despite the Bulldogs rallying in the fourth quarter and getting within one point, the ‘Dogs could not capitalize.
The fourth-quarter charge was led by senior guard Saga Ukkonen, who scored 8-points, and sophomore guard Taija Sta. Maria orchestrated the offense with two fourth-quarter assists while pitching in with two points.
Overall, forward Mia Jacobs kept the Bulldogs afloat all game, recording a near double-double. Jacobs finished with 18-points on 4-for-10 shooting, a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line and nine rebounds, to go along with her one block and one steal.
A key factor in the loss was the 40-points in the paint from the Falcons, which tied for the fourth-most points allowed in the paint by the Bulldogs this season. Also, the Falcon made the most of the Bulldogs’ 11 turnovers, scoring 16 points off them, with the majority coming from the first and last quarters.
What happened?
After the Bulldogs opened the first quarter with an early 5-0 run, the Falcons pulled away with an 18-7 lead after a string of stops on defense midway through.
However, a fast break layup and a foul drawn by Jacobs sparked a 7-2 run for the Bulldogs, cutting the Falcons’ lead to 20-14 to close the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, points were hard to come by as both teams struggled to find the bottom of the basket. However, a layup from freshman forward Rayna Williams broke the scoring drought for the Bulldogs. From there, both teams began to trade points.
With continued success at driving to the paint, either getting easy baskets or drawing a foul, the Bulldogs were able to trim the Falcons’ lead down to 32-28 heading into halftime.
Following two quarters, Jacobs led all scorers with nine points, including a team-high five points from the free-throw line.
The Falcons shot an efficient 27-for-53 (51.9%) from the field and recorded four steals. As for the Bulldogs, they went 9-for-28 (32.1%) from the field and 2-for-11 (18.2%) from beyond the arc.
Despite not having the lead, they did lead in the rebound battle, snagging 19 rebounds to the Falcons’ 16.
In the third quarter, the Falcons played strong defense throughout, forcing turnovers and bad shots. On offense, the Falcons dissected the Bulldogs’ zone defense, finding cutting players along the baseline for easy shots under the rim.
But, the Bulldogs closed the quarter out with some momentum following back-to-back scores from Ukkonen and freshman guard Danae Powell to shave the Falcons’ lead down to 55-49.
To open the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs continued to find their groove on offense, looking to drive to the paint for a basket or kick it out to an open player. After a putback layup from Powell to bring the score to 59-58, the Bulldogs were on the brink of tying the game or taking the lead.
Still, the Falcons would not give up the lead easily.
Even so, with two seconds remaining and the Bulldogs trailing 67-66, they had another crack at taking the lead. On the final play, off a baseline inbound pass, the Bulldogs set a pin-down screen to get the mismatch for Jacobs. However, the Falcons did a good job at shutting off the pass, forcing the ‘Dogs to kick it out to Ukkonen in the corner for the 3-pointer, which missed, sealing their 67-66 loss.
The Bulldogs dropped to 8-8 in conference play, and as a result, they have fallen to sixth place in the Mountain West Standings.
What’s next?
The Bulldogs have a chance to snap their two-game losing streak against the University of New Mexico as they take on the Lobos on Saturday, March 1, at 1 p.m. at the Save Mart Center.