Thursday, Jan. 24 WAC Women’s Recaps
Nevada 74, Louisiana Tech 70
Box Score
RENO, Nev. ? Junior point guard Dellena Criner scored her 1,000th career point for Nevada to help lead the University of Nevada women’s basketball team to its eighth straight win at home, a 74-70 victory over La Tech Thursday night. With the win, Nevada improves to 13-5 overall and 4-1 in the WAC, while La Tech falls to 8-10 and 2-3 in the WAC.
The Pack had four players score in double figures as Nevada posted its first-ever win over La Tech in Reno in eight games.
Nevada jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with 17:42 left in the first half before a three-pointer by La Tech’s Nastassj Levingston tied the game at 10-10 with 13:37 remaining. Nevada pushed its first-half lead to eight on two occasions, a three-pointer from Mikail Price with 8:37 left in the half and on a jumper by Brandi Fitzgerald with 8:04 remaining.
The Lady Techsters cut Nevada’s lead to three, 37-34, with 48 seconds left in the half before Cherlanda Franklin’s jumper gave Nevada a five point lead, 39-34, at the half.
Nevada shot 44.8 percent (13-of-29) from the floor in the first half and shot 92.3 percent (12-of-13) from the free throw line. La Tech ended the first half shooting 42.4 percent (14-of-33) from the floor.
La Tech took its first lead of the game with 15:39 left in the second half on a jumper by Shanavia Dowdell to give the Lady Techsters a 43-41 lead. La Tech took its largest lead of the game, 65-60, with 6:30 left before a three-pointer by Price and a jumper from Bre`Anna Henry tied the game at 65-65 with 5:23 left in the game.
Criner’s three-point shot with 3:28 remaining put Nevada on top for good at 70-68. The three pointer also gave Criner 1,001 career points and makes her just the eighth women’s basketball player in Nevada history to score at least 1,000 career points for Nevada.
The Pack held the Lady Techsters without a field goal for the final 4:28 of the game.
Nevada ended the game shooting 46.4 percent (26-of-56) from the floor while La Tech finished the game shooting 50.9 percent (29-of-57).
“We showed a lot of fight tonight, we battled and didn’t give up,” head coach Kim Gervasoni said. “We didn’t give them extended runs which was the key in the win. We missed some free throws but got some stops. Our defense won it for us down the stretch.”
Criner scored a team-high 17 points for Nevada on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor and 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Fitzgerald and Price each added 12 points for Nevada while Henry scored a career high 11 points. Marianne Lombardi and Sabrina Keys each grabbed a team-high five rebounds for Nevada.
“It was a tough win but a win is a win and we’ll take it,” Criner said. “We dug down deep in the last four minutes. A lot of people stepped up for us tonight and we did an excellent job on defense.”
Fitzgerald, who recorded three steals in the win, now has 152 career steals and joins Criner as the only two current Nevada players who have recorded at least 150 career steals.
Nevada will host New Mexico State on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Lawlor Events Center. The game will be televised by KAME and will be shown on a tape-delay basis on Saturday at 8 p.m.
New Mexico State 71, Utah State 58
Box Score
LOGAN, Utah ? The New Mexico State women’s basketball team overcame a sluggish first 25 minutes of the game and finished strong down the stretch to pick up a 71-58 victory over Utah State Thursday evening at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
With just over 15 minutes to play NMSU trailed by one, but the Aggies then used a 18-9 run to pull ahead and held USU to just one field goal in the final four minutes of play to seal the victory.
The Aggies victory gives them a series sweep over Utah State and NMSU now improves to 14-4 on the year and 4-1 in WAC play. USU falls to 6-12 and 2-4 in the conference this season.
Four Aggies scored in double figures with sophomore guard Hannah Spanich highlighting the game with her career-high of 15 points off of 4-of-6 shooting from the floor and a 7-of-8 performance at the free throw line.
Head coach Darin Spence said his team was a happy group after the win, escaping what he called a dull place to play where there was a bunch of empty chairs.
“I’m very pleased with how the team responded from our La. Tech week, not just the loss but the week of practice,” Spence said. “We had spirited practices this week and we got back to our identity. This is a huge win for us and it’s nice to get a series sweep over them after having lost our last three out of our last four against them.”
Senior forward Sherell Neal led all Aggies with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting and she also had a game-high eight rebounds. Classmate Anikia Jawara added 16 points and freshman guard Madison Spence had 12.
New Mexico State shot 53.1 percent in the game, marking the third time this season that NMSU has shot above 50 percent in a game. The Aggies also made 17-of-21 shots at the free-throw line and were 9-of-11 in the final two minutes to help seal the victory.
Utah State center Jenny Gross led all scorers with 19 points.
Spence got things going early on for the Aggies who were a little sluggish out of the gates. She hit a 3-pointer 20 seconds into the game and scored seven of NMSU’s first 11 points in the opening six minutes of the game.
Jawara’s bucket in the post gave the Aggies a six-point lead at 10:31. Utah State then proceeded to go on a 7-0 run thanks to a three and a layup from guard Alice Coddington, giving the UtAgs their first lead of the game at 8:43.
Junior guard Tyshae Walton hit a couple of long jumpers and Jawara scored two buckets in the paint in the final eight minutes of the half where the lead changed hands seven times.
With 1.9 seconds left in the half and the game tied at 33, NMSU in-bounded under its own hoop and Neal got an open eight-foot jumper as the buzzer sounded to give the Aggies a 35-33 lead heading into the locker room.
Neal and Spanich both had eight points in the opening half where the Aggies shot 60 percent from the floor, but NMSU’s 11 turnovers limited its production. Gross led Utah State in the half with 11 points.
The two teams continued to trade baskets in the first five minutes of the second half. The Aggies were down by one before Neal scored five-straight points, the last three coming on an old fashion three point play where she spun away from her defender in the lane and made the layup while being fouled.
Then two jumpers in the lane from Jawara and senior guard Monique Bribiescas gave the Aggies a 51-45 lead with 12:27 to play.
New Mexico State was still up by five with under seven minutes to play when Jawara fed a slashing Neal for the layup at 6:33, putting the Aggies up by seven. USU answered right back with a layup, but then Jawara prevented any momentum swing with her old fashion three point play to put NMSU up 60-52 with 5:22 to play.
The Aggies played very aggressive in the final four minutes of the game; maybe a little too aggressive as they had several fouls that put the UtAgs on the free-throw line three times. USU only made 2-of-5 shots at the line and only got one field goal in the closing four minutes of the game.
NMSU made 9-of-11 of its free throw attempts to close out the game with the 71-58 victory.
New Mexico State now travels over to Reno, Nev. for the final game of its three-game road trip. The Aggies and the Wolf Pack tip off at 7:00 p.m. MDT in the Lawlor Events Center.
San Jose State 53, Idaho 46
Box Score
San Jose?Natalie White scored 20 points, and Sayja Sumler added 15 points as the San Jose State women’s basketball team defeated Idaho, 53-46, Thursday evening to give the Spartans its first Western Athletic Conference victory.
For the second consecutive game, White scored 20 points in a game. She now has four 20-point games and nine for her career. White was 6-of-15 from the field, 4-for-6 from three-point range and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. She added three rebounds and a steal in 35 minutes of action.
Sumler scored a career-best 15 points in the win. She was 7-of-13 from the field and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Sumler had three steals, two assists and a blocked shot.
The Spartans and Vandals traded the lead in the first half. Idaho took an early 6-0 lead and had an 18-16 lead at 3:50 before San Jose State used a 9-3 run to end the half and take a 25-21 lead into halftime.
San Jose State held the lead the entire second half. Idaho cut the lead to 29-27 at 14:19 before a Sumler layup and a Christine Martin made three-pointer game the Spartans a 34-27 lead at the 13:26 mark. The
Spartans led by as many as 12 points three times in the second half.
“We came out tonight with better energy and effort from the start,” said San Jose State head coach Pam DeCosta. “We were able sustain the effort throughout the game. We had to go with a smaller lineup and were quicker offensively and defensively. The team did a great job tonight.”
The Spartans faced an Idaho lineup that was missing their leading scorer Katie Madison. Madison, who averages 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, did not dress because of a knee injury. Yinka Olorunnife, the team’s second leading scorer, led the Vandals with 10 points.
Other contributing Spartans included guard Brittany Imaku recorded six assists in the game, the third consecutive game she had dished out six assists this season. Brittany Powell had seven rebounds, three assists, two points, a blocked shot and a steal. Tamiko Davis recorded two points, three rebounds and two blocked shots. Martin and Emily Nichols each scored five points, while Alisha Hicks scored four points and grabbed four rebounds and three steals. Barnes grabbed five rebounds and dished out two assists.
San Jose State improves to 2-16 overall and 1-4 in the WAC, while Idaho drops to 2-16 overall and 1-5 in the WAC. The Spartans continue its three-game homestand this Saturday evening with a WAC game against Fresno State. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., in The Event Center.
Boise State 77, Hawai?i 73
Box Score
HONOLULU, Hawai’i ? Tasha Harris and Jenna Galassi each went over the 20 point mark on Thursday (Jan. 24) night to lead the Boise State University women’s basketball team to a 77-73 win.
Harris led the Bronco women with24 points while Galassi added 21 points as Boise State improved its record to 12-6 and 4-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. Hawai’i fell to 7-11 and 1-4 in the WAC.
The Bronco women blistered Hawai’i during the first 20 minutes building up a 16-point lead at halftime, 43-27. Boise State made 18 of 34 shots for 52.9 percent during the first half, while holding Hawai’i to just 27 points.
Hawai’i fought back in the second half outscoring the visiting Broncos 46-34, before coming up four points short when the final buzzer sounded.
Jackie Lee also scored in double figures for Boise State with 11, while Sierra Moeller led the team in rebounding with seven.
The Bronco women fly back to Boise on Friday (Jan. 25) to begin preparing for its rematch with Fresno State on Monday (Jan. 28) at Taco Bell Arena. Fresno State handed the Broncos a 73-63 loss back on Jan. 5 to open WAC play. Tipoff for the game is 7:00 p.m.