Fresno State women’s hoops begins Mountain West play with road victory

The Fresno State women’s basketball team opened Mountain West play Tuesday with a 72-66 win at UNLV.

Bulldogs freshman Hanna Cavinder amassed 17 points and nine assists, and junior Maddi Utti tallied a game-high 20 points. Haley Cavinder, Hanna’s twin, had season-highs of nine assists and six steals plus a team game-high seven rebounds.

Fresno State (6-3, 1-0) led throughout against a UNLV team (2-5, 0-1) that was picked to finish seventh in the Mountain West preseason poll (votes cast by all 11 head coaches and media members).

The Bulldogs, who were predicted to finish third behind defending champion Boise State and New Mexico according to the preseason poll, built a 27-17 lead after one quarter and led by as much as 18 points with 37 seconds left in the third.

The Rebels pulled within 63-59 with 4:06 left. From there, Hanna Cavinder made a free throw and Jordanna Porter (who finished with 14 points) scored a layup for a 66-59 Fresno State lead.

UNLV had one more push, getting to 68-66 with 23 seconds left before the Cavinders each made two free throws to close it out.

This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 8:56 PM.