Fresno State Athletics
Bulldogs to Host Santa Clara in WNIT First Round
3/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Josh Mitchell
jomitchell@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State women's basketball team will host Santa Clara on March 18 in the first round of the 2016 Women's National Invitational Tournament, the committee announced Monday evening. Tipoff at the Save Mart Center on Friday will be at 7 p.m., PT, with a free live stream on the Mountain West Network. Christian Lukens will be on the call for 790 AM.
Tickets for Friday's game will go on sale on Tuesday morning. Season ticket holders will have the first opportunity to reserve seat locations beginning at 9 a.m. An email will go out to all season ticket holders Tuesday morning with information on how to purchase their tickets. Tickets to the general public will then go on sale at noon on Tuesday through the Save Mart Center Box Office, online at ticketmaster.com or by calling ticket master. Tickets can be purchased for $11 for reserved seats, $8 for general admission and students get in free.
Free parking will be available on Friday at the Save Mart Center thanks to our generous friends of Fresno State.
"I'm excited to play Santa Clara and get the opportunity to coach against JR (Payne) again after our days in the Big Sky," Fresno State head coach Jaime White said. "They're a good team; they won at Stanford, split with Saint Mary's and San Diego, and beat Gonzaga twice. It'll be an aggressive, physical game as both teams play similar styles of defense."
Santa Clara is 23-8 overall and tied for third in the West Coast Conference at 13-5. The Broncos reached the semifinals of the WCC Tournament before falling to BYU, 87-67. Santa Clara's biggest win of the season came on Nov. 23 when the Broncos won at then-No.13/10 Stanford, 61-58.
Fresno State is 23-15 all-time against Santa Clara and has won five straight games against the Broncos in Fresno, Calif., dating back to 2003. In the last 10 matchups in the all-time series, the Bulldogs hold an 8-2 record.
This is the program's seventh selection into the WNIT, ninth-straight appearance in a postseason tournament, and 14th postseason appearance overall. This year will mark Fresno State's second consecutive appearance in the WNIT. The Bulldogs went 1-1 last year in the tournament, defeating San Francisco 79-73 in the first round at the Save Mart Center before falling at Saint Mary's, 83-64. Fresno State's best records in the tournament came in 1990, 2003 and 2006 when the team went 2-1.
"We're excited to get back to playing and get that bad taste out of mouths," White said. "We had a great crowd at the Mountain West Tournament so we hope everyone comes out on Friday to the Save Mart Center."
Prior to taking over at the helm of the Bulldog program, Jaime White was no stranger to the postseason during her final seasons at Northern Colorado. With the Bears, she went to the postseason in three of her final four seasons. After guiding Northern Colorado to its first-ever NCAA Division I postseason appearance in 2011, the Bears broke through with its first-ever postseason win in 2012, defeating Wyoming, 71-63 in Laramie, Wyo.
Picked fourth in the Mountain West Preseason Coaches Poll, Fresno State finished second in the conference with a 15-3 record, the second-most conference wins in program history. The Bulldogs also hold a 21-11 overall record to mark back-to-back 20-win seasons for White in her first two seasons at Fresno State.
Under White's guidance, sophomore center Bego Davalos was named 2016 MW Defensive Player of the Year after ranking in the top two nationally throughout the season in blocks and blocks per game.
Fresno State in the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT)
App.  Won   Lost  Pct.
 6     7     8   .467Â
1986 - WNIT
Idaho 74, Fresno State 61
U.S. International 82, Fresno State 76
Tennessee Tech 79, Fresno State 77
1990 - WNIT
UNC- Charlotte 70, Fresno State 67
Fresno State 67, Wyoming 63
Fresno State 73, Illinois State 72
2003 - WNIT
Fresno State 87, Santa Clara 72
Fresno State 58, Oregon State 57
Baylor 72, Fresno State 65
2005 - WNIT
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 56, Fresno State 53
2006 - WNIT
Fresno State 78, UC Santa Barbara 59
Fresno State 77, UNLV 57
Kansas State 64, Fresno State 61
2015 - WNIT
Fresno State 79, San Francisco 73
Saint Mary's 83, Fresno State 64
