Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
20-8, 11-4
New Mexico State
9-20, 5-10
Bulldogs Defeat New Mexico State on Senior Night
3/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 4, 2009
FRESNO, Calif. - Senior night turned out to be a memorable evening for the Fresno State women's basketball team as the Bulldogs defeated New Mexico State 69-52 on Wednesday evening at the Save Mart Center. Fresno State is now 20-8 and 11-4 in the WAC while New Mexico State dropped to 9-20 and 5-10.
The 20 wins is the programs ninth 20 win season in the 44-year history of the program and they can win at least a share of the WAC championship with a win at Utah State on Saturday.
Senior Bailey Amundsen scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting from the three-point line and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. LaToya Brown earned her second career start in her final home game and she played a career-best 22 minutes, scoring six points and dishing out four assists.
"I am very proud of our seniors and their effort," Fresno State coach Adrian Wiggins said. "They are great people not only with what they are doing with their careers and their degrees but with how they have represented our program. They have held onto some of the values we promote as a part of our program and department. I am really proud of them for that. Tonight they came out and played well. LaToya started off really strong and that helped us while Bailey hit a bunch of big shots when I thought we were stagnant offensively."
In the final home game, the Bulldogs set a new school record for 3-pointers made and attempted. Fresno State is 272-for-775 from beyond the arc, breaking last year's record of 262-for-762.
"We don't even think about it," Jalessa Ross said on her team's ability to shoot the 3-pointer. "It is like a regular shot to us."
Ross led the `Dogs with 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. She hit 5-of-6 3-pointers and tied a season-high of five steals.
"I just wanted to come out and leave a mark on Senior Night and play for my seniors," Ross said. "I knew if we started off well that it would carry over throughout the game. It was contagious because Bailey started hitting them and everybody started getting to the rack."
The Bulldogs shot 42 percent from the field and held the Aggies to 34 percent shooting. Fresno State out rebounded New Mexico State 40-36.
The Bulldogs led the entire game and opened a 17-6 lead seven minutes in. Amundsen set the team-single season three-point record on her three with 15:27 to play in the first half, giving the Bulldogs a 13-4 lead.
Fresno State built its lead to 30-14 after a 3-pointer by Ross with 7:04 to play in the half. The lead then ballooned to 40-19 with 1:55 left in the period and the Bulldogs led 42-22 at halftime.
Fresno State's biggest lead of the game was 47-22 less than two minutes into the second half. New Mexico State got no closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
"Join the State - Fresno State"-Fresno State closes out the regular season on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time at Utah State.
