Saturday, Jan. 12 WAC Women’s Recaps
New Mexico State 71, Utah State 56
Box Score
LAS CRUCES - Senior forwards Anikia Jawara and Sherell Neal led the way with 19 and 18 points, respectively as the New Mexico State women’s basketball team downed Utah State 71-56 Saturday, Jan.12, in the Pan America Center.
This win accelerates NMSU’s record to 13-3 overall and 3-0 in WAC play. Utah State falls to a 6-9 on the year and 2-1 in the WAC.
Jawara (Atlanta, Ga.) pulled down four rebounds and shot 7-for-11 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Neal (Phoenix, Ariz.) was also flawless from the charity stripe, 6-of-6 and made six of her 11 field goal attempts.
Senior guard Monique Bribiescas (Gilbert, Ariz.) tied her season-high with 11 points for the Aggies and supplied the team with four assists. Freshman guard Madison Spence (Las Cruces, N.M.) led NMSU on the boards recording a career-high seven rebounds and dished out four assists.
The crimson and white Aggies shot a season best 18-of-21 (85.7 percent) from the free-throw line and shot an impressive 18-of-25 (72.0 percent) from the field in the second half.
Utah State scored early, putting two points on the board 10 seconds into play, but hot-handed Jawara scored three baskets in a row, including a monster reverse layup keeping the Aggies right behind USU 9-6 with 14:55 left in the half.
Quick guard action from the navy blue-clad Aggies allowed a run for USU, springing the score to 16-8. A seven minute NMSU scoring drought was broken by a short jumper from Carla Denning and two Irma Kmitaite-Smith (Sirvintos, Lithuania) free throws brought the Aggies within four, 18-14.
Seven consecutive points from Bribiescas and two free throws from Neal gave NMSU its first lead of the night, 27-26 with 32 seconds to play until intermission.
USU tied the game at 27 from a free throw before sophomore guard Hannah Spanich (Tulsa, Okla.) was fouled shooting a three with seconds to play. Spanich converted all three shots at the line, putting the Aggies up by three, 30-27 at the end of the first half.
Leading the way for the Aggies in the first 20 minutes was Neal with eight points, including a perfect 6-of-6 free throw effort. Neal also pulled down three defensive rebounds and added two blocks.
Jawara added six points while Bribiescas recorded seven points in eight minutes of play.
NMSU came out full force taking control of game with an 11-2 run from an early four point effort form Jawara and five points from Spence, including a deep three at the top of the key with 16:47 to play.
The crimson and white Aggies stretched the lead to 18, but back-to-back 3-pointers from USU cut the lead to 12 with 11:40 remaining.
An up-tempo NMSU offense and a full court press showed USU no mercy as the crimson and white Aggies continued to give themselves a comfortable double-digit lead, 55-39 with 8:31 to play.
However, the navy blue-clad Aggies would go out with a fight and after two layups and a pair of 3-pointers, they cut the lead down to 12, 61-49. NMSU would respond with a Spence jump shot and Neal layup with 3:13 remaining.
New Mexico State finished the last 30 seconds of the half scoring four points to beat the navy blue-clad Aggies, 71-56.
NMSU shot 55.3 percent from the field, a season’s best and held the USU to a mere 30.4 percent shooting.
The win was NMSU’s second largest victory of the season.
The Aggies now hit the road for a three game excursion starting Saturday, Jan. 19, at 6:00 p.m., against Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La.
Boise State 85, Louisiana Tech 68
Box Score
RUSTON, Louisiana - Boise State snapped a two game losing streak by storming past Louisiana Tech 85-68 on the road Saturday night in Ruston, Louisiana. Jackie Lee scored a season high 18 points to lead five Broncos in double-figure scoring as Boise State ended a four game stretch of road games. The victory over the Lady Techsters made history as Boise State became the first team to win two consecutive conference games on the road at Louisiana Tech. The Broncos won last year’s meeting in Ruston 68-47 to snap a 15-year home win streak in league contests for the Lady Techsters.
The Broncos came out fired up and played with a lot of emotion as they stormed into the lead early. After Louisiana Tech took a 6-5 lead with 18:31 to play in the opening period, Boise State stepped on the gas and ran off a 17-to-seven run to claim a nine-point, 22-13, advantage with 9:09 to play. The Broncos took the lead for good with 15:14 to play in the first period when Amanda Stewart hit layup putting Boise State up 13-11.
The Lady Techsters battled back cutting the Bronco lead to three points with 3:15 to go before halftime. Boise State responded by scoring the final seven points of the period and the first five of the second half.
With 18:55 to play the Broncos led by 15 points, 45-30.
The closest Louisiana Tech would get in the final 18 minutes was 12 points on three occasions, the last came at 47-59 with 11:36 remaining. Boise State then slowly pushed the tempo up and stretched the lead to a game high 22 points, 80-58, with 3:49 left on the clock.
For Boise State it was an overall good team effort as five Broncos hit double-digit points and a sixth just missed. Lee led the team with 18 points to go with six rebounds. Amanda Stewart recorded her first career double-double with 14 points and a team high 11 rebounds, while Jamia Malone matched Lee’s points with 14 of her own. The Broncos top scorers on the season Tasha Harris and Jessica Thompson each scored 10 points. Harris also recorded five boards, one assist, and one steal, while Thompson added four rebounds, two assists, one block, and four steals. Jenna Galassi chipped in nine points, six rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Melissa Rima also had a solid outing contributing six points, four boards, one assist, and one block.
Louisiana Tech was led by four players in double figure points. Nastassja Levingston scored 17 points, all in the first half. Shanavia Dowdell also recorded 17 points to go with eight rebounds. JoKierra Sneed added 11 points and a team high 10 rebounds as she netted the double-double. Tarkeisha Wysinger contributed 10 points and seven rebounds.
Boise State shot 43.8 percent (32-73) from the floor, 33.3 percent (9-27) from the arc, and 70.6 percent (12-17) from the free-throw line. Louisiana Tech made 37.9 percent (25-66) from the court, 30 percent
(6-20) from 3-point range, and 57.1 percent (12-21) from the charity stripe. The Broncos out rebounded the WAC’s top rebounding team 49-39, which included 22 offensive boards for Boise State.
Boise State became the first team in the WAC to win on the road in league action this season with the victory over the Lady Techsters. The win improves the Broncos to 9-6 overall and 1-2 in WAC action. Louisiana Tech fell to 7-9 on the year and 1-2 in league play. Up next for Boise State, the Broncos will host their first home games in 33 days this coming week when Utah State comes to town on Thursday followed by Nevada Saturday night.
Nevada 75, Hawai?i 65
Box Score
RENO, Nev. ? Brandi Fitzgerald scored a game-high 21 points and added 11 rebounds and Dellena Criner added 19 points as the University of Nevada women’s basketball team beat Hawai`i 75-65 Saturday night.
The Pack (11-4) improved to 2-0 in WAC play and won its first two WAC games of the season for the first time since the 2000-01 season. The Rainbow Wahine fell to 6-9 overall and 0-2 in the WAC.
Hawai`i led just once in the game, taking a 1-0 lead with 19:49 left. The Pack went up by nine, 25-18, in the first half on a jumper from Cherlanda Franklin. Hawai`i held Nevada without a field goal for the last 2:10 in the first half but the Pack still took a 35-29 lead at the half.
In the first half, Nevada shot 37.1 percent (13-of-35) from the floor while Hawai`i shot 35.5 percent (11-of-31). Fitzgerald scored nine of her game-high 21 points in the first half.
Hawai`i cut Nevada’s lead to two, 35-33, to open the second half before a jumper from Fitzgerald sparked an 11-0 Nevada run that pushed Nevada’s lead to 49-35 with 13:39 remaining. With 10:16 remaining in the game, the Pack extended its lead to 17 points, going up 58-41. The Rainbow Wahine pulled to within five, 60-55 in a layup by Leilani Galdones with 5:55 remaining but used a 7-0 run to push its lead to 67-55.
“We fought hard and battled tonight,” head coach Kim Gervasoni said. “Hawai`i came to play and I thought they had a good game plan. We hit key baskets down the stretch and got key stops and we did what we had to do to win. They were a tough matchup for us but overall I’m happy with our focus.”
Fitzgerald recorded her second career double-double, scoring a season-high 21 points and tied her career high with 11 boards. Criner scored 19 points for the Pack including 10-of-13 from the free throw line.
Cherlanda Franklin ended the game with a career-high 11 steals and a career-high four blocks. As a team the Pack recorded 15 steals.
Nevada will play at Idaho on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. MT and will face Boise State in Boise, Idaho on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. MT.
Fresno State 68, Idaho 59
Box Score
Moscow, Idaho - The Fresno State women's basketball team used a strong second half effort to beat the University of Idaho 68-59 on Saturday at the Cowan Spectrum in Moscow, Idaho. It is the sixth straight win for the Bulldogs as they upped their record to 8-8 overall and 3-0 in WAC play. Idaho fell to 1-14 and 0-3 in conference play.
Tierre Wilson led Fresno State in scoring with 22 points, 17 coming in the second half. Wilson was nine of 16 from the field and she had a game-high eight rebounds. LaShaunte Stephens had 12 points and four rebounds while Jaleesa Ross had 10 points and six rebounds.
Fresno State shot 44 percent from the field and out rebounded the Vandals 44-24 for the game.
The Dogs trailed 31-28 at halftime thanks to 3-pointers by Wilson and Ross right before the break.
After trailing the entire first half it didn't take long for the Bulldogs to capture the lead as Wilson connected on back-to-back jumpers to put the Dogs on top at 34-33 with 18:12 to play in the game. Ross later connected on a three-point play with up the Fresno State lead to 39-33 with 15:18 left in the game.
The Bulldogs never trailed the rest of the game and would lead 62-49 following an Bailey Amundsen 3-pointer with 4:57 to play. Fresno State's biggest lead was 15 points at 68-53 with two minutes left in the game.