@ Fresno State -- Saturday 12/14

It’s never easy to play a road game against a good and tough team, but after a week of stress from finals and practices at odd times, the Pilots are headed to Fresno St. for a Saturday afternoon game.

UP beat FSU in their first-ever meeting last year in Portland, but this year’s game looks to be dead-even with the nod going to the home team.

FSU is 3-3 on the season against D-1 opponents, and is in the middle of a three game set with WCC teams.  The Bulldog women beat Santa Clara easily 69-49 last week, and play USF at home next week in what should be an easy win.  So, it will be up to the Pilots to defend WCC pride on Saturday.

Looking over FSU’s lineup, they have four players averaging in double figures and the team is outscoring its opponents 69-59.

Considering injuries and apparently unresolved eligibility issues, it will be interesting to see what Coach Sollars’ traveling squad looks like.

Always a concern, the post-finals funk lasted for about 20 minutes today in Fresno, and the Pilots lost to FSU 76-67 after being down by 12 points at the half.

UP came out of the locker room with renewed vigor in the second half, outscoring their opponent by 11 points in the first seven minutes, but just couldn’t quite grab the lead.

For the most part the Pilots shot the ball well, 8-8 from the line, 27-60 overall from the field, but only 5-20 from behind the arc.  I’m guessing their 19 turnovers had the coaching staff pulling their hair out.