University of San Francisco Athletics

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FRESNO, Calif. – With swarming defense and sweltering shooting from the paint, the San Francisco women's basketball team dismantled Fresno State 74-47 Friday night at the Save Mart Center.

The Dons turned in a complete game from start to finish to move to 5-6 on the season, while Fresno State, slated to win the Mountain West, drops to 6-4 as the Dons snap a three-game winning streak.

Sophomore Taylor Proctor led the USF scoring charge with 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds, two assists, one block and a steal. Fellow second-year player Zhané Dikes posted 16 points in the contest, and Taj Winston and Jamie Katuna both added eight points for the Dons.

USF's 59.3 percent shooting in the game marks a new school record, besting the previous team-high of .590 shooting versus Oral Roberts, set over 27 years ago, on Nov. 29, 1986. Of its 76 points on the night, an eye-popping 62 came in the paint.

"As much as we need to be able to stop other teams, we need to be able to score early," head coach Jennifer Azzi said before the game began. "When we hit our first shot, all the sudden we're aggressive. We need to move the ball and reverse the ball on offense, space the floor and execute. And when we do that, we're a very, very good team."

Hitting that first shot set the tone for the night that Azzi's "very, very good team" was ready to play.

The Dons had the hot hand from the get-go, scoring the first six points of the contest as layups by Rachel Howard, Proctor and Dikes all found the bottom of the net before Fresno State's Robin Draper got the home team on the board. The Bulldogs' first three makes came from 3-point range as Fresno State edged to a 9-8 lead, and later a 14-10 advantage with 12:33 remaining in the half. The four-point Bulldogs' advantage proved to be its largest of the evening.

Fresno State's Bree Farley gave the Bulldogs its last lead of the night, when she drained a 3-pointer to put the score at 21-19. Taj Winston's defensive rebound and outlet pass to a streaking Dikes for the fast-break layup knotted the game at 21 apiece and ignited a 16-2 run for the Green and Gold. With 4:15 to play in the period, Hashima Carothers stole the ball from the Fresno State offense and Dikes flashed down the court for a jumper in the paint that put the score at 35-23 in favor of USF.

The run broke open the game as the Dons cruised to a 41-30 advantage at the midpoint break, USF's largest halftime lead of the season. The Dons outrebounded Fresno State 21-9 in the opening half, shooting a sweltering 54.3 percent from the field, and 62 percent from two-point range.  The 11-point halftime deficit for Fresno State was only the second time of the season the Bulldogs have trailed at the midpoint.

The Dons again scored the first six points of the second period, kicked off by a steal and resulting layup by Paige Spietz. Proctor and Winston earned buckets in the paint to grow the lead to 17 points with 18:26 to play in the game and the scoreboard reading 47-30 in favor of the visitors.

USF continued to dominate on offense, stretching the lead to 33 points after a 17-2 run. The Dons' defense held Fresno State to one field goal in a span of nearly 12 minutes. During that drought, the Bulldogs were 1-for-17 from the floor and committed five turnovers. USF's lead was 70-37 at the 4:59 mark, its largest advantage of the season.

The Dons went on to close out the contest with the 76-47 win, its largest margin over a regular-season NCAA Division I opponent since an 88-59 win over San Jose State in the 1994-95 season. USF's defense held Fresno State to 29.1 percent shooting on the night, and 5-of-29 shooting in the second half. The Bulldogs' 47 point total is the lowest since a 77-40 loss to No. 3 Stanford on Dec. 12, 2010.

"The last game really hurt us," Proctor said about USF's loss to UMKC on Wednesday. "It kind of just made us realize that we need to step up, because we have been going on a one win streak and then losing the next game. We finally got our act together and actually played like a team. Everyone was passing the ball and no one wanted it for themselves. This game we had to focus possession-by-possession and that's exactly what we did."

The Dons earn a much-deserved holiday break after closing out its non-conference schedule. USF returns to the hardwood Dec. 30, opening West Coast Conference action at Santa Clara at 7 p.m.