Basketball teams claim fourth seeds

By DARRELL COPELAND

The Fresno State women’s basketball game Saturday was reminiscent of a 100-yard dash. And the Bulldogs revealed some pent-up feelings.

The Bulldogs and Hawaii started off even on Saturday afternoon, trading baskets, until Fresno State pulled away in the second half to reach the “tape” first.

With the 64-48 victory over the Rainbow Wahine (11-14, 7-11 Western Athletic Conference), the Bulldogs (19-9, 10-8) clinched the No. 4 seed in this week’s WAC tournament.

Early in the game, the Rainbow Wahine’s leading scorer, Jade Abele, went down with a left knee injury. Abele finished the game 0 for 2.

The Bulldogs’ leading scorer, Amy Parrish, had a tough first half, shooting 2 for 10 for six points and struggling to finish her inside shots.

“I was almost just taking shots that were kind of uncharacteristic,” Parrish said.

Given it was senior night, emotion was an admitted hurdle to the Bulldogs’ ability to perform early in the game, interim coach Adrian Wiggins said.

“Emotional night, obviously, for our seniors,” Wiggins said. “Maybe a little too much emotion.”

Tears were shed on behalf of all three seniors — Aritta Lane, Veronica Mack and Cophie Moore.

Mack and Lane played a combined 12 minutes, and Lane finished her night with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.

“Whether she scores 20 points or two points, she just works so hard,” Wiggins said.

The Bulldogs and Rainbow Wahine combined for 46 turnovers, Fresno State responsible for 21 of those. But the Bulldogs put together multiple spurts of brilliance to pull away from Hawaii.

In one spurt, Fresno State put a seven-point flurry on Hawaii. Lane connected on two free throws, then point guard Mirenda Swearengin hit on a pull-up 3-pointer, followed by an immediate steal on the inbound pass and completed by an Amy Parrish layin.

Combinations like this helped the Bulldogs outscore the Rainbow Wahine by 16 in the second half and for the game.

Fresno State has now focused its attention on the NCAA tournament, but it will need a good showing at the WAC tournament to make it there.

“We know we can do it, we just have to show it,” Parrish said.

The Bulldogs will at least enjoy their time for now under their new leader, Wiggins, who replaced recently fired coach Stacy Johnson-Klein.

“He just says what needs to be said, there’s no personal things behind it,” Parrish said. “He realizes that players make mistakes. He’s just a great coach.”

When posed the question of whether or not the respectWiggins shows the players makes the team want to play harder for him, Parrish said it does.

“For me, definitely. I think the other girls probably feel that also.”

Men
Fresno State was outscored by 14 points in the second half, losing 66-59 at Hawaii on Saturday.

The Bulldogs led 33-26 at the half behind 19 first-half points from Donovan Morris, who finished with 21.

But Hawaii, led by Matt Gibson’s 26 points, came back to shoot 41 percent in the second half.

Still, the Bulldogs (15-13, 9-9) earned the fourth seed for the WAC tournament and face Louisiana Tech on Thursday.