ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As expected, Fresno State’s women’s basketball team opened its first-round NCAA tournament game against North Carolina with a swish from a 3-pointer.
Fresno State’s perimeter-frenzied offense, which currently leads the nation in 3-pointers per game, fired 50 shots from beyond-the-arc to keep the Bulldogs (25-8) competitive against the No. 5 seed Tar Heels.
But UNC had prepared for the pressure and used height to its advantage as the Tar Heels picked up an 82-68 victory at The Pit.
“Fresno State is probably the best 12-seed team in the Tournament,” coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “They took 50 threes — that’s 10 more than anyone has ever taken on us. We had to make a lot of adjustments to cover that. The big kids had to come out.”
UNC (27-8) sent its bigs out of their comfort zones to cover the perimeter and pushed the Bulldogs’ shots farther off the 3-point line to allow just 14 sunk shots from behind the arc.
The pressure was focused on the Bulldogs’ Jaleesa Ross.
The senior scored 14 points and sank four threes, but fell just three 3-pointers short of the NCAA record — thanks in large part to the defensive effort of UNC’s Tierra Ruffin-Pratt.
“We tried to guard her and stay on her, cause we knew she was going to put up a lot of shots,” Ruffin-Pratt said. “They always put me on the best player no matter what team it is, so it wasn’t really a challenge. We just tried to not let her get her seven 3s.”
Ruffin-Pratt also ignited UNC’s offense early in the first half after the Bulldogs jumped out to a lead with a 7-0 run. The sophomore guard finished the game with 10 points and nine rebounds.
