Fresno State Athletics
Women's Basketball Falls in Overtime to SMU
2/17/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2000
DALLAS - Fresno State stayed with SMU neck-and-neck for the entire regulation period, but the Mustangs depth and experience took over in the end, allowing them to escape with a 78-68 overtime victory at Moody Coliseum. The Bulldogs' record drops to 10-13 (3-6 WAC) while SMU improves to 16-6 (9-1).
After garnering a nine-point halftime advantage, SMU bolted to an 11-point lead early in the second half. But an Amanda Baker jumper and three consecutive Lindsay Logan three-pointers cut the deficit to one with 12:39 left in the contest. The two teams battled back and forth for the next eight minutes, but the Bulldogs were never able to take a lead until Baker nailed a three to make the score 58-57 with 3:10 left.
SMU regained the lead the next possession on a layup by D-dra Rucker, but once again Baker had an answer, hitting a jumper to make it 60-59, Fresno State. Things started looking even better for the Bulldogs with 1:53 left when Baker canned another outside shot to increase the lead to three.
With 1:11 left and the score still 62-59, Logan misfired on a long three-pointer and SMU got the rebound. After running their offense patiently, the Mustangs got a big shot from Rucker, who nailed a three-pointer from the corner to tie the game. Both teams had shots at taking the lead in the final minute, but neither came away successful, and the game went into overtime.
In the extra stanza, it was all SMU from the start. The Mustangs scored the first eight points and jumped out to a 70-62 lead with three minutes left. Fresno State could get no closer than six the rest of the way.
For the Bulldogs, Logan was again the standout. The WAC Freshman of the Year frontrunner scored a team-high 21 points on 8 of 17 shooting, including 5 of 11 from three-point territory. She also dished out seven assists to add to her WAC-leading total. Baker added 15 points while Laura Garcia had 12 off the bench.
SMU was paced by Karlin Kennedy, who had a game-high 22. Rucker finished with 15 despite shooting only 4 of 15 from the field. The Bulldogs outshot the Mustangs 50 percent to 39 percent. But the game's biggest discrepancy came from the foul line, where SMU was 17 of 21 compared to 10 of 11 by Fresno State.
FS returns to action on Saturday, when it travels across the Metroplex to take on TCU at 5 p.m. PST.
