Dec. 12, 2001

Box Score

(San Francisco) - A pair of Toni Russell free throws broke a 67-67 tie with four seconds remaining to give USF a 69-67 victory against Fresno State Wednesday in non-conference women's basketball action at War Memorial Gym. With the win, the Lady Dons (4-3) capture their fourth consecutive victory, and snapped a two-game winning streak for the Bulldogs (5-3). It was the second time in as many games that Russell sealed a USF win at the charity stripe after giving San Francisco a three-point lead at Cal in the closing seconds last week.

After building a first half lead, the Lady Dons went cold offensively in the second half as the Bulldogs held USF to one field goal in the first six minutes, eventually going on a 17-10 run to open up the period. Once Fresno State tied the contest at 57-57 at the 6:04 mark, the Lady Dons stepped up just enough defensively and converted on 6-of-8 from the free throw line in the final minute, three of them by Russell, to preserve the win.

Junior guard Alicia Hernandez scored a team-high 17 points and converted on 4-of-8 from 3-point range and made a pair of key free throws in the closing stretch to go along with eight rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Lindsey Huff also turned in an excellent performance, adding 11 points, seven rebounds and dished out a game-high six assists. Russell finished with nine as did sophomore forward Carey Sauer.

Freshman center Celeste Farmer had a solid outing for the Lady Dons and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with eight points in 25 minutes, while freshman forward Angela Gibson added eight boards. For the seventh time this season, San Francisco was out-rebounded by a margin of 51-49.

Doing most of the damage for Fresno State was freshman forward Aritta Lane, who pulled down a remarkable 18 rebounds, seven offensive, while junior forward Omelogo Udeze turned in a double-double for the Bulldogs with a game-high 20 points and 16 rebounds. USF did an excellent job of containing Fresno State's leading scorer, junior guard Lindsay Lane, who finished with six points on a miserable 2-of-19 evening.

San Francisco returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 15 when they host UNLV. Game time is at 5:00 PM at War Memorial Gym and is the first contest in a rare double-header with the USF men's team. The Dons host the University of the Pacific at 7:00 PM.