'Dogs win despite circumstances

Adrian Wiggins took over for Stacy Johnson-Klein, who's on paid administrative leave

By NATHAN HATHAWAY / The Collegian

Maybe now their house will start feeling like a home.

The Fresno State women’s basketball team got its first Western Athletic Confe-rence win at home, 65-47 over Texas-El Paso on Thursday night. It was Fresno State’s first win at the Save Mart Center since Dec. 9.

UTEP was also struggling, having not won a WAC road game all season.

“We knew a streak was going to end tonight,” interim coach Adrian Wiggins said. “And thankfully it was our streak that ended.”

And they ended it without their coach.

With head coach Stacy Johnson-Klein put on paid administrative leave by the athletic department, Wiggins, Johnson-Klein’s head assistant, took over.

“I think they were happy to win in the Save Mart Center,” Wiggins said. “We enjoy this building. It’s definitely a luxury for us, and we haven’t given it the best basketball. But tonight we played a good basketball game for our facility.”

Unlike the first time the Bulldogs played the Miners, Fresno State put together a complete game, beginning to end.

“I think those of us that didn’t show up the first 30 minutes of the game when we played [in El Paso], I think we showed up,” forward Amy Parrish said.

Fresno State got balanced scoring out of its lineup. Every Bulldogs player who played at least six minutes scored in the game, and the Bulldogs shot 48 percent from the field for the game.

Parrish led all scorers with 22 points, her third game in a row scoring 22 and the fifth time in the past six games she has scored at least 20.

Fresno State set the tone early, beating UTEP (9-13, 4-8 WAC) with quickness.

After UTEP opened up a 7-0 lead, the Bulldogs went on a 9-2 run that included three straight fastbreak layups off steals. Overall, the Bulldogs outscored UTEP 18-8 in the paint in the first half.

Fresno State stretched its first-half lead to 31-19 with three and a half minutes left before taking a 33-23 advantage into halftime.

“I think coming out in the beginning, with so much going on,” Parrish said, “we were just ready to play and just ready to show people, with so many distractions, we’re here to play basketball. Kind of a stress reliever.”

In the second half, the high intensity, speed-driven game gave way to a more methodical offense that systematically beat the Miners.

Jasmine Plummer had eight rebounds, four points and eight steals in the game, coming up one steal shy of tying the school record set in 1998 by Janee Young.

“We had to [play] defense. Our offense comes through our defense,” Plummer said. “I just see the ball and go get it.”

The Bulldogs also forced 26 turnovers in the game, mostly thanks to their stifling press.

“We played hard, intense defense,” Wiggins said “But we also played very smart, which is a nice sign this time of year.”

The win brought the Bulldogs to 6-6 in the conference.

For as much as Wiggins and the players tried to keep the focus on the game, Johnson-Klein was the topic on everyone’s mind.

Euphemisms like “outside distractions” and “stuff going on” filled the post-game press conference.

Did the players miss coach Johnson-Klein? What was the emotion like? How was this different?
But everyone did their best to keep the focus on the game.

“We just stay on one agenda, and that’s to play basketball. We’ve been real focused this whole time,” Plummer said. “We just know stuff’s going to happen, and we’re just here to play basketball.”

But for as much as they tried, the players couldn’t put Johnson-Klein totally out of their minds.

“Of course you miss someone’s presence on the sideline because you’re used to them being there,” Plummer said. “But when you’re on the court, it’s just you and your teammates, and that’s what we were focused on: getting on that court and playing basketball.”