Road Redemption?
Bulldogs try to end losing streak at Nevada on Saturday
By NATHAN HATHAWAY
On the road again.
The Fresno State women’s basketball team just can’t wait to get on the road again.
Chantella Perera and the Bulldogs close the first half of the WAC schedule on Saturday. File photo by Joseph Hollak |
And with good reason.
The Bulldogs have lost five straight games at home but have been one of the hottest road teams in the nation. Fresno State is 7-1 on the road this season and, until a loss to Texas-El Paso two weeks ago, held the longest road winning streak in the nation at 10 games.
So why shouldn’t the Bulldogs be eager to hit the bricks?
This team is looking for any way possible to pull itself out of its current doldrums. The Bulldogs (11-6, 3-5 Western Athletic Conference) have lost five of their past six games, all in the WAC, after starting the season 10-1 and find themselves in eighth place in the conference.
“We’re successful on the road, and it’s weird, we just do a lot better,” senior forward Aritta Lane said. “It hasn’t been working out too well here. (We need to) just take advantage of being on the road and knowing that we do so well.”
And the Bulldogs couldn’t ask for a better opponent to break the drought against than Nevada.
The Wolf Pack sits at the bottom of the conference with a 5-13 record (1-7 WAC), two games behind the Bulldogs and half a game behind ninth-place Boise State. Nevada is riding a four game losing streak, the last two losses coming at Lawlor Events Center.
But the Bulldogs are well aware they cannot afford to take Nevada lightly.
“They’re silent killers,” Lane said. “I remember playing against them a couple times and we walked in and we did take them for granted. And girls who we’d never heard of were on the court and scored 18 points on us last year. They’re a very talented team, and a lot of people look over them, but we need to remember not to look over them.”
Junior forward Amy Parrish said, even though she has not played against Nevada before, she knows the Wolf Pack is more than capable of winning Saturday if Fresno State isn’t ready to play.
“Anything can happen. If we don’t show up to play against Nevada, they’re going to beat us just like other teams have,” Parrish said. “We’ve got to bring it. I think we’re all ready to. We’re all tired of losing. It’s taken a couple games for us to realize, we have to win. There’s no other option. We have to.”
Despite the losses, however, Nevada has been a solid team at home. The Wolf Pack is only .500 (4-4) in Reno but started the season 3-0. The Pack’s fourth win at home this season came against Southern Methodist, then tied for the top spot in the conference and coming off a 68-59 defeat of Fresno State at the Save Mart Center.
In Fresno State’s past two losses, the Bulldogs’ statistics have been near-dominant. In its most recent homestand, against Rice and Tulsa, Fresno State pulled down 81 rebounds, forced 55 turnovers and took 39 more shots than its opponents. But the Bulldogs lost the two games by a combined 10 points.
Nevada ranks last or second-to-last in the conference in 12 team categories, including scoring offense (60.7 points per game) and scoring defense (68.3). In eight of the same categories, Fresno State is in the top 3 in the WAC.
Meghan McGuire and Talisha Anderson lead the Wolf Pack. Both players average 12.4 points per game.
Nevada faces the fourth-best scoring offense in the WAC in Fresno State. The Bulldogs are led by forwards Amy Parrish, who averages 14.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per WAC game, and Aritta Lane, who averages 11.6 points and 6.6 rebounds in conference games.
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