Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
San Francisco
Bulldogs Recover To Beat San Francisco
12/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 16, 2006
Fresno, Calif. - Fresno State's home court advantage worked its magic one more time Saturday, as the Bulldogs rebounded from a 12-point deficit at the beginning of the second half to win their fourth home game of the year 55-48. Tierre Wilson led the Bulldogs with the team's first double-double on the year, scoring 23 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Initially trailing San Francisco 28-19 at the half, Fresno State shot 58.3% from the field in the second half to keep their record unblemished in the Save Mart Center this year.
"I thought that we defended well all night, but that we made some offensive mistakes early and missed some buckets early, and that was what put us in trouble in the first half," said head coach Adrian Wiggins.
Both teams came out slowly in the first half, as the Dogs grabbed a 4-2 lead early in the game prior to nearly three scoreless minutes in the game. San Francisco took a 6-4 lead after breaking through the ice at 14:30, but Fresno State came back and tied it twice as Chantella Perera had six early points to knot the score at 8.
At that point however, the Dons put the pressure on the bulldogs, going on a 16-4 run over the next seven minutes as Fresno State had trouble knocking down open looks, as the teams moved through another long scoreless stretch, as neither team scored for another three minute period from 9:39 to 6:15 remaining in the first half. As a team, the Bulldogs shot only 9-31 from the field (29%) and entered the half with a 28-19 deficit.
The Bulldogs missed an easy layup to open the second half, and Heidi Heintz of the Dons nailed a three-pointer to give San Francisco their largest lead of the game at 31-19 with 19:33 remaining. Fresno state slowly began to chip into the lead, first keeping it even with defensive stops and then bringing it down slowly. The Bulldogs first got the lead under ten, and then knocked it down to five as Chantella Perera scored on a fast break layup to make the score 37-32. The teams traded quick baskets, but then Heintz converted a three-point play to move the lead back to eight, and then scored again to give the Dons a 10-point lead at 44-34 with 9:48 to play.
Buckling down defensively, Fresno State then made their move. Wilson hit on a floater and Perera made two free-throws to bring the advantage back into single digits, and then Andrea Roberson hit the first trey of the game for the Bulldogs at 7:46, cutting the lead down to three with 7:46 remaining. With the crowd and momentum on the Bulldogs side, Fresno State cut the lead to one at 44-43, and finally tied the game with 3:54 left as Wilson took a long three from the wing that bounced high off the back iron but came back down through the net to make the score 48-48. Another floater in the lane from Wilson gave the Bulldogs their first lead since the first five minutes, and the team clamped down defensively one more time, holding the Dons scoreless for the last four minutes of the game.
"We started to make shots that we were missing earlier in the game," said Wiggins. "That got momentum and confidence on our side, and we got on a nice role in the second half."
Fresno State will head on the road to face Arizona on Monday, Dec. 18, before playing their final home game of the 2006 calendar year on Dec. 21. That game will tipoff at 7 p.m.
