Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
7-3
Bethesda University
6-9
Second-Half Surge Leads `Dogs Past Bethesda, 81-63
12/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Josh Mitchell
jomitchell@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - After lackluster performance in the first half, Fresno State (7-3), posted its largest second-half output of the season with 54 points to defeat Bethesda (6-9) 81-63 Friday night at the Save Mart Center.
After trailing at the half, senior forward Alex Sheedy stepped up in a big way, scoring 19 of her team-leading and career-high 25 points in the second half. Senior guard Alex Furr chipped in 11 points and redshirt freshman Bego Faz Davalos added 10 as both scored eight of their points in the final 20 minutes.
"I'm grateful for second halves and I'm grateful that finals are over," head coach Jaime White noted. "I really thought we were getting some good shots in the first half we just weren't knocking them down, and their big kid bothered us in the middle. Every time we drove or got the ball inside she was there."
In a sloppy first half for both sides, Bethesda got the better of Fresno State on the offensive end, shooting over 50 percent as the Flames took a 32-27 lead into the half.
After four-straight points from Fresno State to start the second half, the tide began to turn in favor of the Bulldogs as Faz Davalos came up with a key block less than 90 seconds into the half. Despite going back down by eight after only trailing by one less than two minutes into the half, Faz Davolos and Sheedy began to come alive, accounting for 25 of the team's next 30 points as the 'Dogs went on a 30-15 run over a near 10 minute span.
"The coaches told me I need to be more aggressive, but I think that my teammates did a good job being open and that's why it was so easy to make those passes," Faz Davalos said of the second half.
Seven more points were added with two coming from junior guard Shauqunna Collins and Sheedy, which sandwiched a 3-pointer by senior guard Robin Draper, to make it a 68-53 game with 6:18 left on the clock. A layup from Rosa Ortiz brought the Flames deficit back to 13, but an 8-0 spurt that included back-to-back 3's from senior guard Alex Furr pushed the lead to 21 with 3:28 to go.
"The second half, I thought we did a great job," White said. "When we turned up our defense, the offense started to fall and then we put the pressure back on them. They had some nice shooters and they hit some big, deep threes. I thought Bego did a good job. There was a run of about four baskets in a row and that really helped us get a little bit of a lead in the second half. Rebounding and being able to play against that big kid is important and we did that in a smart way."
The second half was a complete change for the Bulldogs as they had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, grabbed 10 steals, more than doubled the Flame's rebounding output and shot a more than 60 percent from the field (22-of-34) while hitting 6-of-10 from beyond the arc.
"Like coach said, we had a tough first half but I'm glad we woke up in the second half, but of course we need to prepare a lot more for the next game," Faz Davolos said of looking ahead to Sunday's game at Oregon. "We're human and made mistakes so we learned that we need to focus on one game and then the other."
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