Bulldogs get invitation to WNIT
By NATHAN HATHAWAY
When interim women’s basketball coach Adrian Wiggins stood before
his team Sunday night to tell them they would be playing Texas A&M-Corpus
Christi in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament,
he assured the Bulldogs that the Islanders are “a very good basketball
team.”
Interim women’s basketball coach Adrian Wiggins announces
to his team Sunday they will be playing Texas A&M-Corpis Christi
in the first round of the WNIT. Photo by Joseph Hollak |
To which freshman guard Kendra Walker-Roche replied, “so are we.”
Indeed, the Bulldogs have the fourth-best record in program history entering
the WNIT and have been playing their best basketball lately. The Bulldogs
have won five of their past six games and eight of 11.
Fresno State faces a team in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that ended the
season with identical success.
Overall, however, the Islanders have the edge. Independent Texas A&M-Corpus
Christi had a 22-6 record this season, including a 3-0 record against
teams Fresno State also played. The Bulldogs went 3-2 against common opponents.
“They’ve beaten some quality teams,” Wiggins said. “They’ve
won a lot of games this year.”
Junior forward Terra Andrews leads the Islanders with 15.6 points per
game.
Bulldogs guard Paige Diggs, from Amarillo, Texas, was excited about being
able to return home to play in the Lone Star State on Friday.
“Hopefully family will get to come,” Diggs said. “It’s
still about 12 hours, but it’s closer than 26.”
Four Bulldogs players — Diggs, Brittani Green, Cophie Moore and
Mirenda Swearengin — hail from Texas, and another, Jasmine Plummer,
has family that lives in Corpus Christi.
“It feels great. We have another chance to try to win a title,”
Swearengin said. “And it feels good to be going back to Texas.”
Perhaps the most exciting thing for Fresno State is a potential second-round
matchup with Western Athletic Conference rival Tulsa. If Fresno State
tops Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Tulsa beats Texas A&M, the Bulldogs
and Golden Hurricane will match up for the third time this season, with
Fresno State looking to beat Tulsa for its first win.
“That’d be great. It’d be a neat matchup,” Wiggins
said. “It’d be great for the WAC teams to win, no matter what.
Every one that we could win would be a good showing for our conference.”
A third round game for the Bulldogs would be played at the Save Mart Center.
While most players said they would have liked to play in the NCAA tournament,
the WNIT, they said, is a better fit for them.
“An NCAA bid, just in genera l, is something we would have liked
to have had,” said junior forward Amy Parrish, who was a member
of the University of Oregon team that won the WNIT in 2002. “But
as far as keeping the season going, this is definitely better. If you
go by who (WAC teams Louisiana Tech and Rice) are playing (in the NCAA
tournament), this is a better road.”
Rice and Louisiana Tech both ended up as 11th seeds in the NCAA tournament
and will play top 25 programs Georgia and Temple, respectively.
“We’re definitely happy to be playing,” Wiggins said.
“Right now this is the best thing for us.”
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