Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
24-7
Utah State
17-14
Dogs Advance To WAC Final
3/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 11, 2011
LAS VEGAS, Nev - The Fresno State women's basketball team gave new meaning to the term "March Madness" on Friday afternoon.
The No. 2-seed Bulldogs overcame a surprising 17-point first-half deficit and rallied to a hard-fought 86-76 victory over No. 3 Utah State in the WAC Tournament semifinals, keeping their NCAA Tournament hopes alive. Sophomore forward Rosie Moult tied a career high with 23 points, while senior forward Hayley Munro added 15.
"We had to deal with a lot of unique things as an offensive team tonight," Fresno State coach Adrian Wiggins said. "I'm very proud of how our players responded. It took us a while to get warmed up. It's just that time of year. It's a long season, and I couldn't be more proud."
The victory sets up the highly anticipated rematch between the Bulldogs and rival Louisiana Tech in Saturday's championship game at Orleans Arena. The top-seeded Lady Techsters, which swept Fresno State in the regular season, squeaked by Nevada 66-59 in Friday's earlier semifinal.
The Bulldogs have now advanced to the WAC Tournament championship game four years in a row. That said, keeping the streak alive required quite a turnaround from a Fresno State team that had been steamrolling the opposition by 19.1 points per game down the stretch.
Indeed, the Bulldogs, winners of nine consecutive games, fell behind almost immediately against Utah State. Fresno State had nine turnovers 12 minutes into the game, and the Aggies showed no mercy. Jenna Johnson converted a transition layup off a Fresno State miscue to give Utah State a commanding 29-12 lead with 8:31 left in the first half.
But rather than panic, Wiggins put the ballgame in his team's hands, refusing to burn timeouts.
"It's more of a life lesson," he said. "You don't always get timeouts in life; you have to deal with it."
The Bulldogs did just that.
After hitting just three 3-pointers in the first half, the Bulldogs finally returned to form and began knocking them down. Moult kick started a well-timed and much-needed 17-2 run with a 3-pointer, and Munro provided the ultimate exclamation point with another as time ran out to cut the Aggies' lead to 37-35 heading into intermission.
Fresno State kept hitting the target in the second half, knocking down four consecutive 3-pointers to take a 58-48 lead with 13:21 to play. The Bulldogs, the leading 3-point shooting team in the nation, went 14-for-37 from 3-point range. Their 14 3s were a WAC Tournament record.
"We had really good ball movement," said Munro, who was 3-for-5 from 3-point range. "In the first half, we weren't making 3s. We just started to attack more and started making them."
Senior guard Jaleesa Ross added 12 points, five assists and four steals, and senior forward Marnique Arnold finished with 12 points. Freshman point guard Taylor Thompson accounted for nine of the Bulldogs' 18 steals.
Bulldog Notes
- The Bulldogs have won 10 of their last 12 WAC tournament games. Fresno State won the WAC Tournament championships in 2008, a 72-56 win over New Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M., and in 2009, a 56-49 victory over Nevada at Reno. The Dogs reached the WAC tournament finals in 2010, falling to La Tech 68-66 in Reno, Nev.
- Fresno State is playing in the WAC tournament championship game for the fifth time since 2003.
- The 86 points scored by the Dogs were the second-most by a Fresno State team in the previous 20 WAC tournaments. The Dogs scored 87 points vs. San Jose State in a 2008 quarterfinal game against San Jose State. Fresno State also scored 87 points in the 2005 WAC tournament semifinal game vs. La Tech, which went to double-overtime.
- Fresno State beat Utah State twice in the regular season, winning 79-69 in Logan and 81-63 in Fresno.
- The Dogs came into the game leading the country in three point field goals per game, 9.6, and broke their own WAC Tournament record with 14. Fresno State previously had 13 three pointers in WAC tournament games vs. Idaho in 2010 and La Tech in 2008. The Dogs also shattered the tournament record for most three point field goal attempts with 37. The old record was 33 set by the Dogs in two previous games.
- The Aggies made the first five three pointers of the game before Rosie Moult connected 17 minutes into the game.Moult, who tied a career-high with 23 points, also tied a career-high with six treys in the game.
- Fresno State trailed 29-12 with 8:36 remaining in the game. TheDogs outscored the Aggies 74-49 from that point. The last time the Bulldogs overcame a double-digit deficit to win was at Idaho last season (Jan. 9, 2010) when the Dogs trailed 53-42 with 10:19 remaining in the game and ended up winning 72-64.
- The Bulldog had 18 steals in the game, five shy of the WAC tournament record. The Fresno State season high was 22.
"We are Your Team!"Fresno State plays WAC rival Louisiana Tech for the 2011 WAC Tournament championship at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The winner of the game will receive an automatice berth to the NCAA tournament. The game will be televised live on ESPNU and available on radio in the Fresno market on ESPN Radio 1430 AM.
