Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Wyoming
Smith's career-high propels 'Dogs past Cowgirls
2/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Quotes | Notes | Photo gallery courtesy of Justin Johnson 
By: Travis Blanshan
tblanshan@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - Behind a career-high 21 points from senior forward Toni Smith, Fresno State overcame a seven-point halftime deficit to defeat Wyoming 64-52 on Wednesday at the Save Mart Center.
Surpassing her previous career-best of 19 points, Smith led Fresno State (15-9, 11-2 MW) in scoring for the fifth time this season connecting on 9-of-14 from the field and hit three free throws. Senior guard Shauqunna Collins came off the bench to score a season-high 16 points hitting on 7-of-11 from the field to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Bego Faz Davalos scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and had three blocks.
Wyoming (12-12, 5-9 MW) was led in scoring by Marta Gomez with 17 points. Senior guard Marquelle Dent, the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, added 13 points. She added seven assists, four steals, and three rebounds.
Wyoming opened up the game on a torrid pace, connecting on its first six shot attempts and knocking down four of its first five 3-point attempts to take a 20-4 lead 3:15 into the game.
The 'Dogs locked down defensively after that holding Wyoming to 2-of-15 from the field and used
an 18-6 run over next 10 minutes to pull within 26-22.
After five quick points from Wyoming, a 3-pointer and a layup, gave the visitors back a nine-point lead, Collins split the defense and made a driving layup at the end of the half to make it 31-24 in favor of Wyoming at the break.
The Bulldogs started the second half on a 7-0 run capped by a 3-pointer by Breanne Knishka. After the Cowgirls led the entire first half, the visitors answered with a 7-0 run before the 'Dogs ended the third quarter on a 12-0 run blanking the Cowgirls the final 4:51 of the third quarter to take a 43-38 lead into the fourth. With 1:15 left in the third quarter, a layup from Smith gave Fresno State its first lead of the game (39-38).
A pair of layups by Collins started the fourth quarter to push the Bulldogs lead to 47-38 capping off a 16-0 run that saw Collins score 10 points and Smith collected six points. Wyoming answered with a quick 7-0 run, including two 3-pointers, to cut the 'Dogs lead to 47-45 with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter.
Continuing to answer every Cowgirl comeback attempt, the 'Dogs put an end to any upset bid reeling off the next eight points to take a 55-45 with 3:31 left to play. Fresno State kept Wyoming at a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game as the Bulldogs won for the third time in the past four games.
"The first quarter was a little shocking for everyone," said head coach Jamie White after the win. "We knew that Wyoming could shoot 3-pointers, but we didn't know they were going to shoot close to 100 percent. It was something that we had to adjust to. I thought we did a good job of adjusting. At the end of the day, I thought our defense was what won us this game. We had to play good defense and get stops. The first half is just to get to the second and our kids really bought into that, and did a great job coming back out and finishing."
The 'Dogs are back in action on Saturday afternoon as they travel to Utah State (11-13, 6-7 MW) to face the Aggies at 1 p.m. at the Dee Glen Smith Specturm.
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