Bulldogs women power inside to down Cal State Bakersfield

Bego Faz Davalos recorded her fourth double-double of the season and Moriah Faulk scored a game-high 16 points as Fresno State escaped with a 57-52 win against Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday night at Save Mart Center.

The Bulldogs (3-4) have won two straight for the first time this season and avenged last season’s 20-point loss in Bakersfield.

“It was kind of a weird up-and-down composure game,” Fresno State coach Jaime White said. “But I felt like when we had to, we had good composure and we finished it off.”

The Bulldogs had 11 turnovers compared with 29 a year ago, and they forced the Roadrunners (1-6) into 21.

The most crucial of those came with 25 seconds remaining and the Bulldogs holding a 50-48 advantage. The Roadrunners had possession, but failed to inbound the ball quickly enough and were whistled for a 5-second violation.

Freshman Breanne Knishka hit a pair of free throws and Fresno State slowly pulled away, making 6 of 8 from the line down the stretch.

“We knocked down some free throws when we needed to,” White said. “That was big.”

The Bulldogs led by as many as eight in the third quarter, but the Roadrunners finally erased the deficit on a 3-pointer by Addi Walters. Walters scored 13 points, hitting three 3-pointers in all.

Fresno State was off from long range, making 1 of 12, but scored 32 points in the paint compared with 18 for Cal State Bakersfield.

Faz Davalos scored 13 points to go with 12 rebounds. Faulk added nine rebounds, leaving her just shy of her third double-double.

“I’m just happy that we got the win. We knew this was going to be a tough game for us,” Faulk said. “It feels good. We’ve been working really hard. We’ve had some tough losses so I think putting two together is giving us confidence going into the (rest of the) season.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 11:18 PM with the headline "Bulldogs women power inside to down Cal State Bakersfield."