Offensive struggles continue in Fresno State women’s road defeat
Fresno State’s offensively challenged start to the 2017-18 women’s basketball season found no end in the team’s first road test.
The Bulldogs hit just 19 of 65 shots (29.2 percent), including 5 of 20 3-point attempts, and fell to Texas-Arlington 67-54 on Friday afternoon. A two-game trip to Texas concludes with a 2 p.m. tipoff versus Texas State in San Marcos.
Fresno State (1-3) entered the game shooting at a .362 clip for the season and averaging a Mountain West second-worst 62 points per game – even while pumped up by the 81 the Bulldogs scored in an opening victory over Eastern Washington.
Aly Gamez, a freshman reserve from Irving, Texas, led three Bulldogs in double figures with a season-high 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting, including 2 of 2 on 3-pointers. Gamez also had four rebounds and four steals in 19 minutes.
Maddi Utti, another freshman off the bench, also was 3 of 6 in scoring 10, but Candice White 5 of 18 in getting her 10. The starters were a combined 11 for 44.
Rebekah VanDijk, a 6-foot-5 senior center, scored 19 on 7-of-9 shooting for Texas-Arlington. Jennifer Parker, a 6-2 freshman, grabbed nine rebounds to fuel the Mavericks’ 42-31 advantage on the boards.
It was all but over after one quarter. The Mavericks (5-0) used an 11-0 run to erase a 10-7 deficit and led 22-12 after the first 10 minutes.
Texas-Arlington hit 14 of 26 shots in taking a 41-25 halftime lead. The Bulldogs got within 11 to end the third, then got a brief look at the game when White’s layup made it 52-45 with 7:02 to play.
VanDijk scored in the paint to trigger a 6-0 run that pushed the lead back to 13 with 4:45 to go and the Bulldogs never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Up next
FRESNO STATE AT TEXAS STATE
- Saturday: 2 p.m. at Strahan Coliseum in San Marcos
- Records: Bulldogs 1-3, Bobcats 3-1
- Of note: Texas State will be playing its home opener. The Bobcats, picked fifth in the Sun Belt Conference, have hit at least 10 3-pointers in three of their four games – including 12 of 23 on Tuesday in beating Texas Southern 70-56.
This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Offensive struggles continue in Fresno State women’s road defeat."