'Dogs put on defensive display

Forced turnovers turn defense into offense in a 91-46 exhibition win over crosstown rival Fresno Pacific

By Maggie Thach
The Collegian

If the exhibition game against Fresno Pacific Monday night is any kind of indication of how the season will fare, it’s going to be a dominating one; dominating on the offensive boards, in defensive pressure and in tempo of the game.

Even though Fresno Pacific is an NAIA school, the meetings the last two years were competitive, but this year was drastically different.

In a 91-46 rout over the Sunbirds, Fresno State forced 39 turnovers and had nine blocked shots. The trio of Brittani Green, Erica Henry and Faith Probst controlled the offensive boards and Jasmine Plummer had the most complete game with six points, three assists, four blocked shots and eight steals.

First-year head coach Adrian Wiggins was pleased to see the players step up, especially with preseason all-WAC first-team pick Amy Parrish out with a hamstring injury.

“I was encouraged. Erika was a physical presence, getting boards and making baskets,” Wiggins said.

“And Jasmine has something special in that she doesn’t have to score to spark us. She did that with blocked shots and her energy on defense.”

The first half didn’t look so encouraging. Fresno Pacific scored the first basket and the Bulldogs remained scoreless until 17:41. But after the first basket in the game, a three-pointer by Paige Diggs, the Bulldogs turned up the defensive pressure and the turnovers seemed to just fall into the Bulldogs’ hands. Even in Plummer’s limited time, it was her defensive tenaciousness that rattled the Sunbirds.

“Jasmine’s defense always kills them,” Green said. “Our defense turned into our offense.”

Even with stingy defense, the Sunbirds didn’t trail by more than 10 points for most of the first half. The Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run at the end of the first half and took a 35-19 lead into halftime.

Everything after that went downhill for Fresno Pacific. Not more than six minutes into the second half, Toni Atherly made three 3-pointers and Chantella Perera added one after only making 1 of 14 in the first.

The three-pointers sparked a 23-2 run and the lead ballooned to 48 before the game was over.

For the game, the Bulldogs held the Sunbirds to a shooting percentage under 30 percent and1 for 8 from beyond the arc. Fresno Pacific turnovers almost matched its point total. Melissa Montoya led the Sunbirds in scoring with eight points.

Playing time was well-distributed and it was time well spent as all players scored.

Now the team will focus on improving its man-defense and having more fluidity in its offense.

“This is a game to get all your bad things out,” Plummer said. “We’re going to watch this film and work on we need to for the next game.”

The Bulldogs will face the Melbourne Roos, a team from Australia, Nov. 15 in its last exhibition game before heading to UC Irvine to open up the season Nov. 18.

Parrish is expected to sit out against Melbourne Roos and Wiggins said she should be back for the season opener.

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