Women's basketball: Fresno State falls on buzzer beater

Drea Toler hit a long jumper at the buzzer as UC Santa Barbara shocked Fresno State 50-49 in a nonconference women’s basketball game Friday night at Save Mart Center.

With the Gauchos trailing 49-48 with 7.3 seconds remaining, Toler took a swing pass from Onome Jemerigbe and pulled up for the game-winner to stun the Bulldogs before a crowd of 2,190.

The Bulldogs (6-4) had taken the lead with 21.4 seconds left when Bego Faz Davalos scored on a putback, pulling down an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer.

Faz Davalos scored a game-high 24 points to go with 10 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season.

Emilie Volk added 10 points and eight boards in her first game back since a concussion Dec. 4 at Washington.

Faz Davalos’ inside presence could only fuel Fresno State so far, with Santa Barbara concentrating on the 6-foot-3 center and employing a zone defense around her.

The Bulldogs hit 2 of 19 shots (10.5 percent) from 3-point range. The struggles continued at the free-throw line, where they made 3 of 11.

The Gauchos (3-7) snapped a five-game losing streak and were led by Toler’s 10 points. Sarah Porter added nine and four rebounds.

Stat of the night – 0 of 9 field-goal shooting for Fresno State starting shooting guard and team captain Tory Jacobs, including 0 of 5 from beyond the arc. Jacobs, a redshirt sophomore transfer from Minnesota, has struggled to find consistency. She finished with one point against the Gauchos, making the second of two free throws.

Quote of the night – “I didn’t think we shot all that great. We shot 50 percent from the 3 at University of Pacific and we shot 10 percent from the 3 tonight. We shot 27 percent (3 of 11) from the free-throw line and we lost by 1. I don’t know if there’s much more you can say about it. It’s just unfortunate and we had a chance to win.” – Fresno State coach Jaime White

More on this later – Entering Friday, the Bulldogs were 5-0 when holding opponents below 60 points and 6-0 when shooting from 39 percent to 49 percent from the field. Fresno State held the Gauchos to 50, but couldn’t find a rhythm offensively.

This story was originally published December 17, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Women's basketball: Fresno State falls on buzzer beater."