-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
Hard-nosed defense leads to 47-29 Bronco victory
Archive
Comments
Story
All it took was a little momentum on Sunday afternoon for the Boise State women’s basketball team and the rest was history. The women got out to an early 4-1 lead, but that quickly faded as the University of San Diego rattled off 10-straight points to take an 11-4 lead with just over 15 minutes to go in the first half.
Combine that with a hand-full of missed lay-ins and several turnovers and Bronco Head Coach Gordy Presnell was ready to make a change.
At that point the Bronco coaching staff switched from a man-to-man defense into a 2-3-zone defense, which turned out to be the most pivotal decision of the game.
“They’re not the best three-point shooting team,” sophomore guard Tasha Harris said about San Diego.
“We wanted to see how they could handle it and it worked really well for us. We just stayed intense, gave a lot of pressure and stuff like that.”
Harris chipped in a solid effort for the Broncos, scoring nine points and getting three steals.
The Bronco’s clawed their way back to a slim 14-13 lead with 8:22 remaining in the first half as freshman guard Bridgette Reyes hit sophomore Jenna Galassi for a wide-open fast break lay-in.
As the first half neared a close the Broncos’ zone defense continued to force turnovers and bad shots. San Diego went 4-for-27 from the floor and didn’t score a field goal in the last 12:52 Harris got BSU out to a hot-start in the second half by nailing an early three-point shot to extend the Bronco lead to ten points.
San Diego finally ended their field goal drought when Sabin Leowe made a lay-in with 18:22 to go.
Sophomore Jessica Thompson had a productive second half with three steals and four points and some key plays on the fast break.
“We always try to be a running team,” Harris said. “We always try to advance the ball up the floor and tonight we were getting a lot of rebounds so it was a lot easier to run.”
Boise State pulled away down the stretch and came away with a 47-29 victory. The win put Boise State at 4-3 on the season, while the loss for San Diego (6-1) was their first.
“We kind of needed a redemption game to get back on our feet,” Harris said. “To get our confidence back, so it was good to come in here and play a good team and beat them.”
Michelle Hessing may have turned in the best game of the night for BSU. The six-foot, two-inch senior from Boise scored a team-high ten points, six of which came in the second half. She also pulled down eight rebounds and had three steals.
Senior wing Jackie Thompson also did her part, scoring six points and pulling down four rebounds.
“It was a collective effort,” Thompson said. “Some people were missing lay-ups but then you had some other people getting rebounds. It was a collective effort. Everybody was working together. It was a team game, nobody out-shined anybody.”
The win for Boise State was a key one, especially after coming off of a tough loss against Utah Valley State.
“We’re at a pretty good place right now,” Harris said. “We just need to work on staying intense and playing together every single game. Because we know what kind of team we can be, we can be a very good team when we’re all on the same page.”
Boise State continues their pre-season on Tuesday as they host Denver at 7 p.m. at Taco Bell Arena.
KYE JOHNSON
Assistant Sports Editor
