TURLOCK — With strong offensive efforts in the first and third quarters, the Stanislaus State women's basketball team opened its home season with a 79-63 victory over Holy Names in a
Sunday afternoon matineé at Fitzpatrick Arena.
Reana Hardin broke-out with a career best 19 points on the day and
Jasmine Washington came off the bench for 13 points to lead the Warriors as they improved to 3-2 on the season.
Cassidy Sanders-Curry, who scored seven points in the third period, finished with nine points and
Leticia Infante made all four attempts for eight points.
Hardin, who had just one 10-point game in 25 outings last season, scored 16 points in the first half (nine in the first quarter) and finished a sizzling 8-for-10 from the floor to lead the team. She also added four rebounds, a block shot and two steals to her totals against Holy Names.
Holy Names (1-4) was led by Jeana Magana who made five three-pointers and finished with 21 points. Magana was instrumental in the Hawks' rally in the second quarter as she scored 14 of her 17 first half points in the period with four three-pointers.
Stanislaus jumped out to a 12-0 score to begin the game and led 21-8 after the first quarter. Holy Names cut the lead and tied the game at 2:50 on a 20-7 run to make it 28-28. After another tie at 30-30, the Warriors scored the next 10 points for a 40-30 lead until Magana's buzzer-beater trey made the halftime score 40-33.
The Warriors out-scored the Hawks 23-11 in the third to build a 19-point lead which they extended to as many as 25 in the fourth en route to the big win.
In just the first and third quarters, the Warriors out-scored Holy Names 44-19. Stan State also controlled the inside to score 46 points in the paint and 26 points were off Holy Names turnovers.
Head coach Wayman Strickland was able to use all 16 players in the game with Hardin and Alysa Valentine only players to play more than 20 minutes. The ability to keep minutes down could prove to be important in back to back games as the Warriors host Fresno Pacific at 6 p.m. Monday night.
