Bulldogs pick up lucky No. 13, running circles around UNLV to stay perfect in Mountain West
There was at least the potential for problems for the Fresno State women’s basketball team on Saturday because UNLV can play big, and then get bigger.
But the Bulldogs had little trouble in a 72-58 victory at the Save Mart Center.
Because with big and bigger came slow and slower for the Rebels.
The Bulldogs, in extending their streak of Mountain West Conference wins to 13, raced around and went right through the Rebels, beating them up the floor on the break and slicing them up in the half court.
They beat them to rebounds – Fresno State had a 42-35 advantage there with 13 offensive boards leading to 20 second-chance points, the most it has had this season against a Division I opponent.
They beat them inside, scoring 34 points in the paint to the Rebels’ 26.
“We knew this was going to be a tough game,” coach Jaime White said. “I think UNLV is very physical and athletic and talented and probably a little taller in some areas. But I thought our kids did a good job.
“To out-rebound a team like that was fantastic. That was our focus from the get-go. And really, if you look at it, we had rebounding from just about everybody on the team, so that was nice. Shared the ball well – 17 assists. I thought every quarter, we were solid and we never really gave up too much.”
The Bulldogs stopped, really, only at halftime when jersey No. 34 was retired in honor of Wendy Martell, who ranks fifth on the program’s career points list with 1,595, third in assists with 480 and fourth in steals with 224.
Fresno State (20-4, 13-0 in the MW) won by 14 despite hitting just 1 of 12 shots and turning over the ball six times in the final quarter; it still hit better than 40% of its shots (24 of 59 at 40.7%).
Even with Edison High grad Rodjanae Wade putting together her 14th double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds. the Rebels struggled to keep pace with the Bulldogs’ guards.
Fresno State forward Maddi Utti scored all 20 of her points in the first half.
Hanna Cavinder led Fresno State with 24 points with five rebounds and six assists. Aly Gamez had 14 points with four rebounds and two assists. Haley Cavinder had eight points, a team-high nine rebounds and five assists.
The Bulldogs put together some medium-sized runs– 14-0 in the first quarter, 9-0 in the second and led by as many as 20 points and by double-digits for all but 2:10 in the second half.
“We knew UNLV was going to be physical, because they have been in the past, and they’re bigger than us” Utti said after hitting 8 of 13 shots in scoring 20 or more points for the eighth time this season.
“We just had to try to match that, I guess. And I think overall we did a pretty good job getting them fouls and also being physical with them.”
At 13-0, the Bulldogs are off to the best start in Mountain West play since Colorado State went a perfect 18-0 in 2016.
With San Jose State losing to Nevada on Saturday, the Bulldogs now have a 3 1/2-game lead in the conference race and can clinch a tie for the regular-season championship with a victory over the Spartans on Wednesday at the Save Mart Center. Fans wearing green will get into that game for free as part of Pride of the Valley night.
There’s that and, White said, thoughts of an undefeated conference season have crept in there.
“Yeah, you know, let’s just keep winning,” the Bulldogs coach said. “I mean, winning is happiness, right? It really has not affected me at all, I just feel like every game brings a new game plan and our kids are really buying into that and focused on just what’s right in front of us.
“I don’t think there’s any anxiety on it at all. I feel like our kids have responded well. It’s funny because I feel like, too, every night we’ve had different kids step up and also with our main core being consistent. When that happens, you don’t think much further than that, you just get out there, play hard and hope the ‘W’ comes.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 6:55 PM.