Bulldogs building momentum

Women's basketball grbs a big win heading toward next week's WAC tournament

By Darrell Copeland

As the kids say, the Fresno State women’s basketball team was sick.

Saturday, one might say the team was sick with the runs.

And that’s a good thing for the Bulldogs, who opened up the game with a 14-2 run in the first half, followed by a 20-3 run to open up the second half, on their way to defeating the Nevada Wolf Pack by a score of 63-44.

Fresno State (11-15, 5-11) picked a good time to make those runs, as three seniors played their final regular season home game before yet another record-high crowd.

“ It wouldn’t have been complete if we wouldn’t have won,” Fresno State coach Stacy Johnson-Klein said.

Bulldogs senior Mindy Clark finished one rebound shy of a double-double, grabbing nine to go along with her 11 points.

“ I just tried to treat it like any other game,” Clark said.

And for good reason. Although Saturday was the final regular season home game, this year’s WAC tournament will be played in the Save Mart Center, possibly giving the Bulldogs and their seniors a few more games to celebrate their last game.

“ Not too many teams can play two senior games and we’re gonna have several if we have our way,” senior Chantea Fleming said.

Johnson-Klein shared the same point of view, pointing to the tournament as being the final home game.

“ We tried not to put a big emphasis on the senior night because they’re gonna play here again next week,” Johnson-Klein said.

The first half was forgettable for both teams. Neither Fresno State nor Nevada connected on a 3-point basket, going 0 for 9 and 0 for 11 respectively.

“ It seemed to be true to the beginning of our season when we would play like gangbusters for a few minutes and just go cold,” Johnson-Klein said.

By the time the final buzzer rang, the Wolf Pack had connected on two 3-pointers out of the 16 it shot, good enough for a 12.5 percent mark.

The Bulldogs weren’t much better, hitting 23.5 percent of their 3-point attempts, a result of 4 of 17 made. Freshman Chantella Perera made all four of those 3-pointers, giving her 12 points for the night.

Fresno State has a good opportunity to build off its momentum that it created in the second half, where it scored 43 points—one point less than Nevada (3-23, 2-14) scored in both halves combined.

In the second half, the Bulldogs shot the lights out, making 18 of 35 shots for a 51.4 percent rating.

The key to Saturday’s victory may have had nothing to do with offense at all, as the Bulldogs forced the Wolf Pack to make 23 turnovers, normally a good total for two games.

Fresno State will travel to San Jose State next, playing a Spartan team that it beat 81-39 back in January. The Bulldogs are 3-8 on the road this year, winning only one game on the road since Dec. 19, when they won at Boise State on Feb. 14.

Winning in San Jose, along with the following game at Hawaii, will be important for the Bulldogs. A sweep of the two teams means the Bulldogs could receive a No. 6 seed for the conference tournament.