'Dogs look to make home sweet

By Nathan Hathaway

Call it homecourt disadvantage.

The Fresno State women’s basketball team, which opens a two-game homestand Thursday against Rice, has not won at the Save Mart Center since a 65-61 win over Washington State on Dec. 9. During the losing streak, the Bulldogs have gone 0-3 at home, losing to UCLA before dropping back-to-back Western Athletic Conference games to Southern Methodist and Louisiana Tech.

" Usually a winning-at-home attitude, winning-at-home goals, winning-at-home emphasis is a given,” coach Stacy Johnson-Klein said. “And I’ve really had to back up and emphasize it more because we’ve lost some games at home that we needed.

“But I just think this weekend is a new weekend, and I think our kids will be ready. It’s more of just backing up and refocusing. We need to focus more and we need to take more ownership on our court at the Save Mart Center, and that’s something I’ve really been emphasizing.”

To add to Johnson-Klein’s woes, the Bulldogs lost their first road game in nearly a year on Saturday when they lost 68-64 at Texas-El Paso. It was the Bulldogs’ first road loss since a 45-38 loss on Feb. 12, 2004—in El Paso. The loss snapped a 10-game road winning streak, the longest in the nation, and dropped the Bulldogs (11-4, 3-3 WAC) into fifth place in the WAC.

But the Bulldogs can take heart in that Rice (9-7, 2-3 WAC, tied for sixth in conference) has not won a WAC game on the road this season.

Rice was picked in preseason polls to finish second in the conference and was listed by Street and Smith’s college basketball magazine among the “Best of the Rest” in women’s college basketball, just outside the preseason top 25. But the Owls were slow out of the gate, dropping four of their first seven games.

Rice is led by 6-foot-2 sophomore center Lauren Neaves, a first-team all-WAC, all-defensive and all-newcomer selection last season. Neaves leads the Owls with 8.6 rebounds per game and is second on the team with 10.8 points per game. Senior forward Michelle Woods leads the Owls in scoring at 11.6 points per game.

The two six-footers lead a physical inside game for Rice.

“It’s going to be tough, but it’ll be fun,” junior forward Amy Parrish said. “I love playing physical, so it’s going to be nice.”

Tulsa, which Fresno State hosts in the second half of the homestand on Saturday, boasts the conference’s top rebounder and shot-blocker, and second-leading scorer in sophomore forward Jillian Robbins, a three-time WAC player of the week this season.

Robbins averages 16.5 points, 3.1 blocks and 9.2 rebounds per game for Tulsa (11-4, 3-2 WAC, tied for third in conference).

“We need to limit her to her touches, keep her to her averages,” senior forward Aritta Lane said. “Just play honest defense, just keep honest to the way you play a good player like that.”

Lane is still nursing a sprained ankle she suffered in the loss to UTEP but said she will be ready to go Thursday.

With a home sweep this weekend, the Bulldogs can match their win total (13) from last year, with 11 regular season games left to play.