Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Louisiana Tech
Bulldogs Win WAC Title Outright
2/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2010
RUSTON, La. - After every practice the Fresno State women's basketball team finishes by saying "WAC Champs." On Wednesday, the Bulldogs won the WAC regular season championship outright by beating Louisiana Tech 81-78 in overtime. Fresno State has won 15 straight games and is 23-5 overall and 14-0 in WAC play.
"It does feel good," Fresno State coach Adrian Wiggins said. "We will go ahead and enjoy this one tonight. The players fought hard for this victory and they pulled out anyway they could."
LaShay Fears had a career-high 22 points and played 38 of the 45 minutes. She was 7-of-12 from the floor and made six-of-seven free throws. Emma Andrews had 16 points off the bench while Hayley Munro had 11 points and tied her career-high of 13 rebounds. Joh-Teena Filipe added 11 points and six rebounds. Fresno State was 24-for-34 from the free throw line.
"We had some great leadership and made some big free throws down the stretch," Wiggins said. "It's an all-around effort tonight. Our staff did a great job. I got some great help on the bench from the assistant coaches and we just hung in there. We had good leadership. Winning is contagious sometimes and we just really pulled it out with a great effort."
Fresno State shot 45 percent from the floor while Louisiana Tech shot 37 percent. The Bulldogs turned the ball over 23 times and had 45 rebounds to the Lady Techsters 15 turnovers and 47 rebounds.
The Bulldogs trailed by two at 68-66 with 22 seconds left in regulation when Jaleesa Ross drove to the lane and was fouled with four seconds left. She made both free throws to tie the game and send it into overtime.
"Jaleesa played as hard as anybody tonight and it doesn't have to come in points," Wiggins said. "Defensively she did a good job for us and she hit some big free throws for us to get into overtime.
In the overtime period, Fresno State fell behind 75-69 two minutes into the five-minute extra period. Andrews and Munro scored the next five points and came with two points at 76-74 with 1:48 left in the extra stanza.
The Bulldogs final six points came from the free throw line and the Dogs took the lead for good at 78-77 after free throws by Andrews. Fears scored the final two points from the charity stripe with 25 seconds left in the game to earn the victory.
"Our leaders did a good job of staying focused on doing what we needed to do," Wiggins said. "We have gone through scenarios in practice where we have been down five or six or seven. We got to the free throw line and took shots that were makeable shots. We made free throws and it just changed the momentum."
"We Are Your Team"- Fresno State returns to the floor on Saturday for a 6 p.m. contest at Boise State. There is no radio for the game.
