Women outhustle in 58-38 win

By NATHAN HATHAWAY

Stacy Johnson-Klein showed Friday night she is smart enough to go with what works defensively.

After the Fresno State women’s basketball team won both of its exhibition games, largely thanks to a stifling full-court press defense, the Bulldogs came out in their season-opening 58-38 win against Pepperdine and immediately started applying the pressure. Clearly frustrating the Waves’ offense and pinning Pepperdine in the backcourt.

Often, by the time Pepperdine got the ball past halfcourt, more than 10 seconds had ticked off the shot clock.

And this time the press was by design. Before the exhibition games, Johnson-Klein said, the Bulldogs had not practiced the press. But this time, she made sure her team spent time perfecting it.

“We were able to put it in (practice) a little bit”, Johnson-Klein said. “We had time, actually, and we’ll work on it a little more because obviously it will be our bread and butter down the road.”

Pepperdine committed 24 turnovers Friday night.

“Any team can be really good at the press if they’re deep, and we have the depth,” Johnson-Klein said.

“They’re just extremely athletic and have great instincts.”

That depth is one of the keys to Fresno State’s success. Johnson-Klein has 14 available players she can look to for production right now.

“I look down the bench and I’m worried about some of my players not getting enough playing time because there are players that demand playing time because of their production levels,” Johnson-Klein said.

The two teams tied in rebounding, with each squad pulling down 42. That Fresno State was able to pull even in rebounding is a highlight within itself.

With about seven and a half minutes remaining in the game, the Bulldogs were being outrebounded by a taller Pepperdine team 38-27.

“We don’t lose rebounding wars,” Johnson-Klein said. “We just don’t lose them. It’s our technique.”

The Bulldogs jumped out in the first half, taking a 10-point lead into halftime despite shooting 16 percent from behind the 3-point arc.

Sophomore guard Chantella Perera hoisted four first half 3-pointers, missing all of them.

But the second half was a different story. Perera came back to lead all scorers with 17 points, including two 3s, one of which came in a string of seven straight points from the sophomore.

In the second half, “I basically just got my confidence back,” Perera said. “I feel like if I work on my defense and my rebounding, my offense will just come. We just played well together as a team, and I think that’s why I started hitting them.”

Senior Aritta Lane had nine points and led the Bulldogs with seven rebounds. Mirenda Swearengin also had nine points.

“I’m just really, really proud of the way we produced tonight, the way we controlled ourselves, the way we contained the defense,” Johnson-Klein said. “And that defense Fresno State played tonight, anyone will have a tough time scoring against.”

That defense held every Pepperdine player below double digits in scoring.

The 7,042 announced attendance is the biggest crowd to have witnessed a Fresno Strate women’s basketball game in school history, surpassing the record of 5,237 set last year against Nevada.

“They just had one of the biggest win in Fresno State history, probably, on the women’s side, in a long time,” Johnson-Klein said.