In final seconds, Fresno State gives ball to Mountain West’s top scorer. Why didn’t it work?

It was a wild game for 39 minutes, with bodies flying and not many shots falling for either the Fresno State Bulldogs or the UNLV Rebels.

Both women’s basketball teams are in the top four in the Mountain West Conference in scoring, and both were struggling to score.

But the final minute was something else altogether, the Rebels emerging with a 68-66 victory on Thursday at the Save Mart Center when the Bulldogs’ last shot at tying the score or taking a lead went awry.

Down by two points with 6.8 seconds to go and coming out of a timeout called by the Rebels, Fresno State coach Jaime White had Bree Delaney inbound the basketball from in front of the Bulldogs’ bench to forward Maddi Utti out top.

The 5-foot-11 Utti then got it inside to the 5-foot-6 Haley Cavinder, who is the Mountain West’s top scorer with an average of 19.9 points per game.

Canvinder had several options in the paint — score, kick the ball out, draw a foul.

But with the bigger and longer Rebels immediately swarming Cavinder, the Bulldogs got none of the above.

The clock hit 0:00 and Fresno State lost for the second time in its past three games, and with one more regular-season game remaining (Saturday vs. UNLV, 1 p.m.) before the Mountain West Tournament.

“We knew that we only needed two, so we had a couple of options off of it,” White said. “Obviously, Haley drove and there are some kick-out options there, but we had a lot of opportunities to do a couple different things and that’s the one we felt comfortable with.”

It was a curious choice, given the size UNLV had on the floor. But there was a lot just in getting there.

The Bulldogs (14-8, 12-5 in the MW) seemed like they had the game near secured midway through the fourth quarter, up five points with 5 minutes, 32 seconds to go against a UNLV team that, at that point, was shooting just 34.5 % from the field (20 of 58), including just 41.7% (15 of 36) at the rim on layups.

But UNLV (14-8, 12-5) hit five of its last seven shots while Fresno State made only 3 of 12 in that same stretch.

The Rebels defended the paint, and their transition defense was there. Fresno State scored only four fast-break points, an area it usually excels with Haley and Hanna Cavinder and Aly Gamez pushing the basketball.

The Bulldogs hit only 35.2% of their shots (25 of 71) and got to the foul line only six times, a bit of an anomaly. They had attempted 359 foul shots going in, second most in the conference, and 17.1 per game. UNLV, it was 13 of 24 at the line.

Haley Cavinder, despite her last second stumble, led all scorers with 26 points, but was Fresno State’s only player to score in double digits. Utti had six and 15 rebounds.

“They’re big inside,” White said. “I thought they did a good job in the post. I thought at times we were OK, but we really needed more of a presence in the post. The scoring wasn’t extremely balanced. I’d like to have seen it be a little bit more balanced, but the good news is we get to play them again in two days.”

Baseball to start Friday against Bakersfield after COVID-19 pause

Fresno State coach Mike Batesole and the Bulldogs will open their season on Friday with the first of a three-game series against Bakersfield at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium.

Due to contact tracing protocols, the Bulldogs had to rework the start of their schedule and postpone an opening series at UC Irvine while pushing the home opener against San Francisco to March 2, on the road.

A Mountain West series against San Jose State also was postponed with the Spartans in a pause through March 27 due to health and safety concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and student-athlete conduct.

The Bulldogs and Roadrunners will play Friday and Saturday at 3:05 p.m. and Sunday at 1:35 p.m. All three games will be broadcast by 940AM/ESPN.

Soccer picked fourth in Mountain West

The Bulldogs’ women’s soccer team, which returns 16 players including second-team all-Mountain West selection Ele Avery, was picked to finish fourth in the conference in a preseason poll of coaches.

Boise State and San Diego State are co-favorites after sharing the regular-season title a year ago before the Broncos advanced to the NCAA Tournament with a 2-0 victory over the Aztecs in the conference title match.

The Broncos received seven first-place votes in the poll to three for the Aztecs. New Mexico, picked third, and Colorado State, picked to finish seventh, also received one first-place vote.

“It’s nice to be back thinking about competing and how our greatly competitive league might look,” coach Brian Zwaschka said. “We are honored to be considered so highly by our peers. We know it will be a lot of work and discipline to have an opportunity to finish this high or higher, which is always the target.”

Fresno State was 9-7-4 (5-4-2 in the MW) last season, advancing to the conference tournament for the third consecutive season.

This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 9:47 PM.