Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Saint Mary's
Bulldogs Down Gaels In Home Opener
11/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2009
FRESNO, Calif. - The home opener was a memorable night for the Fresno State women's basketball team. Before the start of the game the 2008-09 WAC championship team received their championship rings and the banners were dropped from the rafters of the Save Mart Center to celebrate the feat. Then once the game started, the Bulldogs defeated the Gaels 94-81 on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 2,329.
"I think our team was excited about playing in front of our crowd at the Save Mart Center," Fresno State coach Adrian Wiggins said. "We knew Saint Mary's would come out fast too. They traditionally start very fast. We wanted to make sure we were ready to keep up with their tempo."
Keep up with SMC's tempo they did as Fresno State shot 50 percent from the field for the game and hit 13-for-26 from behind the 3-point line. The Bulldogs had six players score in double figures led by Andrews and Munro's 16 points. The 16 points for Andrews tied her career high she had twice during her freshman season.
Joh-Teena Filipe had 13 points, Jaleesa Ross, 12 and Rose Moult and Marnique Arnold each had 10 points. Arnold led the team in assists and rebounds with six. Taja Edwards and Hayley Munro each had five rebounds while LaShay Fears added five assists. As a team, the Bulldogs had 21 assists.
Saint Mary's out rebounded the Bulldogs 31-30.
"I thought we really shared the ball and passed it well today," Wiggins said. "We are going to continue to work on our rebounding a little bit. This group did a better job of learning as the game went on. It is nice to play at home. We came out with great energy and made some shots. Overall I thought we had a good night."
Fresno State trailed 4-3 in the first two minutes of the game and then burst out to a 26-12 lead after a free throw by Arnold with 13:19 left in the first period. The lead ballooned to 21 at 42-21 with 8:35 to play in the half after Edwards hit her first 3-pointer of her Fresno State career.
The Bulldogs led by as many as 22 in the first half and led 53-35 at halftime.
Fresno State started the second half strong as they built its biggest lead of the game at 69-39 with 12:53 to play in the game after a 3-pointer by Andrews. Saint Mary's then went on a run over the final 10 minutes of the game to get as close as 12 points at 93-81 with a minute remaining.
"The benefit of out of our nonconference season is that not only do we play against really good teams, we also play against really good coaches," Wiggins said. "I thought Saint Mary's did a good job today adjusting today in the second half. They kept challenging us in what we were doing."
"We Are Your Team"- The Bulldogs return action on Friday and as they play Boston College of the ACC in a tournament at SMU. Tipoff is at 3 p.m. Pacific Time.
