Infusion of talent ignites Bulldogs' offense

Newcomers Parrish, Swearengin contribute double-doubles in Fresno State's exhibition win

By NATHAN HATHAWAY

Nearly half of the women’s basketball team is composed of new players to this year’s roster. Seven of the team’s 16 players are new faces.

And they showed Wednesday night why they are such welcome additions.

Two newcomers, Amy Parrish and Mirenda Swearengin, played key roles in the Bulldogs’ 73-60 exhibition win Wednesday against Strakonice BBC, a traveling team from the Czech Republic.

Having the new players is like “night and day,” Stacy Johnson-Klein said. “Last year we were lucky to win some of the games we won. This team, they can finish.”

Both Swearengin and Parrish showed Wednesday night why they are such key pieces to Johnson-Klein’s team. In their first game in a Bulldogs uniform, each posted a double-double.

Swearengin, the team’s point guard, showed her skill and quickness en route to scoring 11 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in 32 minutes.

The 6-foot Parrish, a junior from Hanford, showed her scoring prowess, putting up 16 points, 11 of them from the free throw line, and wrangling 10 rebounds.

After seven lead changes in the first 15 minutes of the game, Strakonice BBC went on an 8-0 run to establish a seven-point lead. But the Bulldogs ended the half with a flurry, closing the gap to 34-33 before halftime, the run capped off by an Aritta Lane layup with one second left in the half.

For as hard as the Bulldogs were fighting all along to pull out the win, nothing compared to their intensity in the final minutes of the game. Fresno State seemed to play with more conviction and determination in the closing minutes. After scrapping back to take the lead for good with eight minutes to go, Fresno State outscored Strakonice 23-11 the rest of the way.

“They didn’t change anything. They just turned their notch up a little bit and their intensity was much better,” Johnson-Klein said. “I think that the upperclassmen looked at the score and actually thought, ‘hey, we could lose this game and that’s unacceptable.’ ”

Overall, however, Johnson-Klein said, she still thought her team made too many mistakes.

“I think we rushed some shots, and that’s what happens with youth,” Johnson-Klein said. “We didn’t overplay the lanes; we didn’t really deny the basketball as we do in practice. So there’s so much room for improvement.

“But what I saw is that we played poorly and won by 13, playing poorly,” Johnson-Klein said. “I would have given that a D-minus, and that’s OK. I wouldn’t want to come out here and say that was our A-game. I wouldn’t have a whole lot to work on.

“The score didn’t really matter to me tonight. What mattered was execution and getting them a little comfortable with playing with each other and getting them ready for (the season-opener Nov. 19 against) Pepperdine.”

While the women did their best to beat Strakonice BBC, men’s team players Carl Ross and Ja’Vance Coleman took the opportunity to work on their own shooting. During halftime, when fans were invited to come onto the court to shoot free throws for food coupons, Coleman and Ross came out of the stands to try their hands from the free throw line. Both returned to their seats with coupons.