Fresno State women’s basketball: Bulldogs host Stanislaus State to start short homestand

Fresno State will hope to cleanse its palate and remove the sour taste from Saturday’s loss at Cal Poly with a two-game homestand beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday against NCAA D-II Stanislaus State.

The Warriors (6-2) are the second D-II opponent the Bulldogs will face this season, but will be a tough test for a struggling Bulldogs squad.

Stanislaus State has won five straight and is led by senior guard Alysa Valentine and junior forward Cassidy Sanders-Curry.

Valentine is coming off a career-high 26 points, fueled by eight straight 3-pointers, in the Warriors’ 61-54 win at San Francisco State. She set school records for most threes made consecutively (8) and in a game (8 of 9). Sanders-Curry, a 5-foot-10 junior, is averaging 10.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, both team-highs.

Fresno State (3-5) has shown flashes of being a good team through its first seven games, but inconsistency has hurt.

Senior captain and forward Toni Smith is 4 for 22 from the field over her last three games and has seen her minutes diminish because of it – she played just 12 minutes at Saint Mary’s and was replaced by Moriah Faulk in the starting lineup.

Senior Alex Furr seemed to break her season-starting slump after Thanksgiving by making six threes against Saint Mary’s, but has gone 1 for 11 from long range since.

Redshirt sophomore Bego Faz Davalos has been the one constant for the Bulldogs. The 6-foot-3 center leads the team in points (12.8 per game), rebounds (10.5), blocks (3.5) and field-goal percentage (50.6). Her 28 total blocks are tied for third-most in the country and she has four double-doubles this season.

The Bulldogs have three nonconference games remaining before opening Mountain West play Dec. 30 against UNLV. Fresno State ends its homestand at 2 p.m. Saturday against San Diego. It is the first game of a doubleheader featuring the men’s team against Pacific at 4 p.m. Fresno State closes its non-conference schedule at Utah on Dec. 19.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Fresno State women’s basketball: Bulldogs host Stanislaus State to start short homestand."