Women hit the road to take on
WAC's top teams

The Bulldogs beat Nevada to end a losing streak, and start the second half of the Western Athletic Conference schedule with road games at Louisiana Tech and Southern Methodist

By NATHAN HATHAWAY

Point guard Mirenda Swearengin leads the Fresno State women’s basketball team into Ruston, La. on Thursday to face conference-leading Louisiana Tech. Fresno State lost 80-70 to Louisiana Tech in the teams’ first meeting this season at the Save Mart Center. The Bulldogs are 0-9 all-time against the Lady Techsters. File photo by Joseph Hollak

Aritta Lane was just happy when she woke up Wednesday and saw it was February.

It meant turnaround time.

The second half of the conference schedule.

A new month. A new beginning.

The month of the Bulldogs was finally here.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Before Saturday’s 75-67 win over Nevada, the Bulldogs (12-6, 4-5 Western Athletic Conference) had lost five of their previous six games — four of them at home — and fell as low as eighth place in the WAC.

The win at Nevada also marked the end of the first half of WAC competition. Now Fresno State will look to improve on its 4-5 conference record as the Bulldogs see teams for the second time around.

“I think we’re as good as our 10-1 start showed,” coach Stacy Johnson-Klein said. “I think we’re back to improving daily. I expect better things (in the second half of WAC play).”

The Bulldogs’ seniors said the team attitude is to learn from the WAC games they’ve already played and never lose to the same team twice.

“There’s no excuse for (our record during) the first half,” Lane said, “but there’s still time to go and change that.”

“We lost some games here at home that we know we shouldn’t have,” Johnson-Klein said. “We have some confidence to regain.”

And February has always been the month for the Bulldogs to do that.

In Johnson-Klein’s first two years as coach of Fresno State, her team has gone 10-4 in February after going 4-13 in January. Fresno State was 3-5 this January.

“I like February at Fresno State,” Johnson-Klein said. “I like February because our girls have really geared up and performed.”

Senior guard Veronica Mack thinks the motivation for the turnaround in February comes because players see the end of the season looming.

“Maybe people in February start thinking, ‘the season’s almost over. It’s time to turn it up a notch,’ ” Mack said.

But the Bulldogs have a difficult task ahead in that they start February against the top teams in the conference.

The Bulldogs travel to Louisiana Tech for a game Thursday before playing Southern Methodist in Dallas on Saturday. Fresno State lost to both teams at the Save Mart Center last month.

The Techsters, who suffered only their third-ever WAC loss last week, to Boise State, again are tops in the conference with an 8-1 record.

Mack said the Bulldogs need to look to Boise State’s win over Louisiana Tech as proof the Lady Techsters can be beat.

“If [Boise State] can do it,” Mack said, “there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to.”

But while the loss showed the Lady Techsters are vulnerable, Johnson-Klein worries the Boise State loss will only motivate them in Thursday’s game.

“[Louisiana Tech’s loss] just makes it tougher for us,” Johnson-Klein said. “They dropped one they shouldn’t have and they’re going to be hungrier.”

But Lane, Fresno State’s senior forward who leads the team with 6.7 rebounds and is second in scoring with 11.2 points per game, is just as worried about Saturday’s game at SMU as she is about Thursday’s against Louisiana Tech.

“I don’t know what it is with Texas,” Lane said. “There’s something about Rice and SMU.”

In Lane’s four years, Fresno State is 2-8 in games played in Texas, including a loss at Baylor in the 2003 Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

The Bulldogs just have to take heart in the fact the games are on the road, where Fresno State has flourished recently.

The Bulldogs are 8-1 away from home this season and 11-1 dating back to last season.

“This year we’ve played real well on the road,” Mack said. “You’ve got nothing else to focus on but basketball and school.”