LAS VEGAS — The No. 7 seed Fresno State women’s basketball team rode a 13-0 start against the No. 10 seed University of Nevada, Reno, to a 74-57 win in the opening round of the Mountain West Tournament.
While the Bulldogs did defeat the Wolf Pack by 17, it didn’t come without a slight scare in the second half.
The Bulldogs held an 18-point halftime lead over the Wolf Pack. However, a 14-3 run from the Wolf Pack pulled them within two possessions.
“I think we started scoreboard watching a little bit and deciding we can take the plays off,” Fresno State head coach Ryan McCarthy said. “At this level, that’s not going to be okay. Especially in March when everybody’s playing with their life.”
The early 13-point lead came on the back of strong shooting from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs knocked down four of their first five 3-pointers and ended the night having made 11 3-pointers.
McCarthy said the team shooting 30 3-pointers wasn’t explicitly a game plan, but rather a better understanding of the offensive system now than earlier in the season.
‘We’ve talked a lot about playing in space and conceptual basketball like playing an advantage,” McCarthy said. “I think our ladies are comfortable now with what we’re trying to do and just understanding the game of basketball.”
Starting guards Emilia Long and Danae Powell agreed that seeing the number of shots fall early in the game helped ease many of the team’s nerves heading into the opening-round contest.
Long led the Bulldogs in scoring tonight with 15 points while also tallying 5 rebounds and four assists. She is just one of two healthy Bulldogs to be averaging over 10 points per game.
“I’ve had days where I don’t play very well,” Long said. “But I think it’s really important to be consistent. A lot of that is thanks to coaching and if I didn’t always have someone pushing me to be better, I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”
The Bulldogs advance to the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament, where they will take on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Lady Rebels are 2-0 against the Bulldogs this season, winning both games comfortably.
McCarthy said he believes the Rebels have not seen his team at its best in either contest and is going forward with a survival mindset for the rest of the conference tournament.
“Our deal is we just want to take them to the deep end and see how long they can survive there, and how long we can survive there,” McCarthy said. “Tomorrow, that’s all I want and I think a lot of the times, upsets can happen that way.”
The Bulldogs are set to battle the Lady Rebels at 5 p.m. The winner of the Bulldogs and the Rebels will play the winner between Grand Canyon University and Colorado State University.
