Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
3-1
UC Irvine
0-3
Dogs Fend Off UC Irvine
11/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2010
FRESNO, Calif. -- - Minutes before the start to Saturday afternoon's run-in with UC Irvine, senior guard Jaleesa Ross asked her teammates a rhetorical but extremely appropriate question.
"Will we ever quit?"
The Fresno State women's basketball team responded with a hard-fought 67-63 win over the Anteaters at the Save Mart Center. The victory atones for this week's loss to Cal Poly and sends the Bulldogs into Monday night's showdown at No. 11 Oklahoma with a much-needed dose of confidence.
The Bulldogs (3-1) led by as many as 17 points in the second half, but UC Irvine refused to go away. Indeed, the Anteaters went on a 14-2 run and eventually closed the gap to 64-63 on a turnaround jumper by forward Jacquelyn Marshall with 50 seconds to play. Still, a series of key offensive rebounds - one by Rosie Moult and another by Ross - and three free throws by Ross in the final 28.8 seconds helped Fresno State escape with the win.
"We fought through it," Bulldogs coach Adrian Wiggins said. "We got better today. That was a tremendous rebounding effort. We really shared the ball well, but it's pretty obvious we still have to get better."
Senior forward Marnique Arnold earned her first start of the season and responded in kind, finishing with a career-high 23 points and 10 rebounds. She came out firing and didn't stop, finishing 10-for-13 from the floor. Arnold also had three steals and two assists in 30 minutes of work. As a team, Fresno State out-rebounded UC Irvine 50-31.
"She was really strong on defense," Moult said of Arnold. "And she was getting good position in the paint on offense. All around, she did everything."
For her part, Moult finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. She was one of three players to score in double figures, as Hayley Munro had 18 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.
Despite trailing 46-29 early in the second half, the Anteaters (0-3) kept pushing and eventually closed the gap to 56-53 following a 3-pointer by Kassandra McCalister with 5:38 to play. Ross responded by nailing a timely 3-pointer of her own on the other end.
For the second consecutive game, Ross was held scoreless in the first half. She knocked down her first bucket with 10:19 to play and finished with nine points, eight assists and seven rebounds. The nine-point effort was enough to move Ross into fourth place on Fresno State's all-time scoring list with 1,520 career points. She also hit one 3-pointer and moved to third in the WAC in 3-point field goals made with 296.
"That was the best game as a leader she's had," Wiggins said. "I wasn't disappointed with her game. I think she's OK with not scoring a bunch of points. She was probably happy to see Marnique scoring 23."
UC Irvine extended its defense early, using a trapping zone to fluster Fresno State. The strategy gave the Bulldogs fits at the start, as they fell behind 9-5 in the early going.
Still, Fresno State was quick to adjust. Moult hit one of her three first-half 3-point field goals to give the Bulldogs a 10-9 advantage. Fresno State never trailed again.
"We Are Your Team!" - The Bulldogs return to the Save Mart Center on Nov. 28 for a nonconference matchup against Pepperdine. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. For more information, visit gobulldogs.com.
