Thursday, Jan. 10 WAC Women’s Recaps
Nevada 72, San Jose State 51
Box Score
RENO, Nev. ? The University of Nevada women’s basketball team opened conference play with a 72-51 home victory over San Jose State Thursday night. Dellena Criner led four Nevada players in double figures as Nevada improved to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in WAC play. San Jose State fell to 1-14 overall and 0-2 in the WAC.
Criner led Nevada with 17 points while Shavon Moore added 13. Johnna Ward came off the bench to score 11 points while Mikail Price ended the game with 10.
The Pack scored its first four points off Spartan turnovers and went on a 16-0 run in the middle of the first half to take a 22-8 lead with 10:42 remaining. Nevada held San Jose State to just 19 points in the first half. Criner hit a three-pointer at the buzzer as the Pack took a 41-19 lead at halftime.
Nevada shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the floor in the first half while San Jose State shot 36 percent (9-of-25). The Pack scored 21 points in the first half off Spartan turnovers.
Nevada opened the second half on a 12-2 run to go up 53-23 on a layup by Price with 16:00 minutes left in the game. With 8:57 remaining, the Pack took its largest lead of the night, going up by 37 points, 68-31, on a jumper by Brandi Fitzgerald.
“I was very excited to start WAC play,” head coach Kim Gervasoni said. “We had some time off after our last game at Utah Valley University so we used this week to work on some things at practice. But I was anxious to start conference play and I couldn’t wait until tonight.”
Nevada finished the game shooting 43.3 percent (26-of-60) from the floor and 33.3 percent (4-of-12) from three-point range. San Jose State ended the game shooting 45.1 percent (23-of-51) from the floor.
The Pack forced 31 Spartan turnovers which led to 33 points for Nevada. Marianne Lombardi recorded a team-high eight rebounds for the Pack as Nevada ended the game with a 36-33 advantage in rebounds.
New Mexico State 79, Boise State 65
Box Score
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico ? The New Mexico State women’s basketball team outscored Boise State 16-4 in the final 4:15 of the game to pull out a 79-65 victory Thursday evening in the Pan American Center.
NSMU had led by as much as 16 points with nine minutes to play before they saw the Broncos cut the lead down to one with just over four minutes to go. Then senior guards Monique Bribiescas and Irma Kmitaite-Smith along with sophomore guard Hannah Spanich led the Aggies in their final run to close out the game with timely baskets and clutch free throw shooting in the final minutes.
“When we got up we knew they are too experienced and too good of a team to just go away,” head coach Darin Spence said. “This is a team that has helped us grow from getting beat by them last year and it was a great win tonight for us.”
The Aggies improve to 12-3 on the year and 2-0 in WAC play with the victory over the Broncos who defeated NMSU three times last season, including in the title game of the conference tournament on March 10. Boise State falls to 8-6 and 0-2 in the conference.
Senior forward Sherell Neal and freshman guard Madison Spence both tied career-highs in the victory. Spence finished with 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point land. Neal pulled down 18 rebounds and scored 14 points for her fifth straight double-double.
Bribiescas added 10 big points off the bench including two huge 3-pointers and senior forward Anikia Jawara added 14 points and eight rebounds.
Junior guard Tyshae Walton held Boise’s Jessica Thompson, the WAC’s second leading scorer, to a season-low eight points. Guard Tasha Harris, the WAC’s top scorer, led the Broncos with 17 points, but as a team BSU only shot 35.9 percent from the field.
NMSU led for most of the first half, but Boise State used a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game 15 minutes in. Kmitaite-Smith came in off the bench and scored seven-straight points to recapture the lead for the Aggies who led 33-32 at the half.
The Aggies turned the ball over 11 times in the opening half, but came out in the second and only committed three turnovers. Boise State also had 14 turnovers in the game, leading to 20 NMSU points and the Aggies also received 26 points from their bench.
In the first nine minutes of the game, the Aggie defense held Boise State to just 3-of-13 shooting from the field and just eight points. The Aggies were up by two until Walton scored back-to-back baskets to give NMSU a 14-8 lead at 10:14.
New Mexico State pulled out to a five-point lead, but the Broncos came right back with a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game, 23-19, with five minutes to play in the half.
Kmitaite-Smith ended the BSU run and tied the game back up with consecutive layup’s. Then after a Kmitaite-Smith hit a three from the left elbow, Neal scored the next seven points for the Aggies who took a three point lead heading into the locker room.
Neal had a double-double in the first half with her 11 points and 11 rebounds. Spence and Kmitaite-Smith both added seven points apiece in the half and the Aggies shot 42.9 percent from the field.
Spence scored nine of the Aggies first 11 points of the second half, helping NMSU pull out to a 44-38 lead at 13:57.
Bribiescas then hit two straight 3-pointers, putting NMSU up 54-42 and it capped off a 21-10 Aggie run in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Spence hit the Aggies fourth three of the second at 9:11 to put NMSU up by 16, but Boise State answered with two three’s of its own and then the Broncos got a layup inside from Ja’Lara Walker to chop the Aggies lead down to eight with 8:01 to play.
With 5:47 to play the Broncos had the Aggies lead cut down to five, 62-57 after a three from Harris and a mid-range jumper from Thompson.
Four-straight BSU points had the Aggies lead down to one before Kmitaite-Smith finally put in a bucket for the Aggies and got them out of their brief drought.
After that New Mexico State caused a turnover, which Bribiescas took end-to-end for the layup while being fouled. She made the ensuing free throw to put the Aggies up six with three and a half minutes to play.
A Spanich layup and a free throw from Bribiescas kept the Aggies up by seven. The Aggies then put the game away for good, outscoring the Broncos 12-2 in the final two and a half minutes and NMSU made 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch.
Kmitaite-Smith finished with nine points two assists and two steals. Spanich tallied seven points on the night and had a career-high five assists. She was 5-for-5 at the line before missing her last free-throw attempt, which ended her consecutive free throw made streak at 24.
1,151 fans turned out for the ball game this evening, which is the most all season for a single game.
The Aggies are now 9-1 at home this season and have won their last six in the Pan American Center. NMSU plays its final game of a four-game home stand Saturday against Utah State who is also 2-0 in conference play. The game is set to tip-off at 7:05 p.m. and kids 12 and under receive free admission.