Bulldogs women rebound from opening loss as guards lead the way in rout of Lamar

The Fresno State women’s basketball team on Saturday looked more like the group that won 25 games and a regular-season Mountain West Conference championship a year ago, beating Lamar 99-49 to close out their South Point Thanksgiving Shootout in Las Vegas.

The Bulldogs (1-1) took full advantage of a team that had struggled to score in its first two games to take a 10-point lead barely 6 minutes in and a 20-point lead a little more than 2 minutes into the second quarter.

Hanna Cavinder hit eight of her first nine shots in scoring 19 points in the first half, and in 16 minutes played to a plus/minus of plus-33. With Haley Cavinder adding 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 16 minutes, Fresno State bolted to a 32-point lead at halftime.

Maddi Utti, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Year, had two early fouls and three turnovers and played just 6 minutes in the first half.

But the Bulldogs’ guard play dominated start to finish, the results spinning 180 degrees from an opening 83-62 loss to West Virginia.

Fresno State, which opens Mountain West play with a two-game series against Colorado State Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 at the Save Mart Center, had a 38-22 advantage rebounding the basketball and was off and running. The Bulldogs scored 29 fast-break points and 44 in the paint, hitting 60.3% of their shots in the game.

Hanna Cavinder finished with 24 points, her 10th career game with 20 or more, and Haley Cavinder just missed a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Aly Gamez, who in the Bulldogs’ opener became the 26th player in program history to score 1,000 career points, finished with 15 points, three assists and three steals.

Coach Jaime White put 13 players on the floor and 10 scored, and the Bulldogs were just one point shy of scoring 100 or more against a Division I opponent for the first time since 2014, when they put up 107 in a victory over San Jose State.

The Bulldogs also allowed Lamar (0-3) to hit just 26.9% of its shots, including 1 of 19 from the 3-point line. The Cardinals had hit just 31.1% and 28.8% of their shots in their first two games, a loss at Texas A&M and a loss to San Diego State in their opening game of the tournament.

This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 3:28 PM.