SEATTLE — The No. 25 Washington Huskies women's basketball team had arguably its best overall showing in a 61-43 win against the Fresno State Bulldogs on Wednesday at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. The Lady Dawgs improved to 4-0 on the season.

For the first five minutes of the first quarter, neither team was able to find much in the way of offense. Both sides' perimeter defense forced the respective offenses to go in the paint for scoring opportunities.

Fresno State was able to find the first advantage in that regard and led 4-2 with 5:26 left in the first quarter.

From that point forward, the Huskies offense was able to explode while the defense kept the Bulldogs in check.

After Fresno State's 4-2 lead, Washington outscored the visitors 35-16 the rest of the way to go into halftime leading 37-20.

Huskies junior guard and defending Big Ten and U.S. Basketball Writers Association Player of the Week Sayvia Sellers led the way for the Huskies with 10 points, two rebounds, six assists, three steals and a block in the first half. She finished the game with 14 points, four rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and three assists in 28 minutes.

Washington forced 19 turnovers in the first half and outscored the Bulldogs 18-9 in points off turnovers.

"I thought there were some great moments (on defense). We talked about that in the locker room," Huskies coach Tina Langley said in a postgame interview Wednesday. "There's some really good takeaways from this game. Shot clock violations, we forced 19 turnovers in the first half. That was an incredible first half of defense. I think there's more consistency there for us and I think we know that. But we're gonna take away the good and learn from the good, too. So, really proud of the growth that we continue to have on that end of the floor."

The Huskies offense and defense continued to stay at a high level through the third quarter. Washington outscored Fresno State 17-9 to go into the final 10 minutes of regulation in front 54-29.

The Bulldogs outscored the Huskies 14-7 in the fourth quarter, but the latters' advantage was too large and Washington held on for the 61-43 final.

In the second half, sophomore Huskies guard Avery Howell scored five of her 14 points. She and Sellers led the team in scoring. Howell also had six rebounds, an assist and two steals.

"It's obviously fun. It's nice to have a team that can get hot on any night," Sellers said Wednesday. "Everybody can knock down shots. So yeah, it's fun. We get to run in transition, it puts pressure on the rim because we have guards that can get downhill and everyone around can shoot. It's really fun."

Washington's defense looked arguably the best it has all season against Fresno State and they could get even better in the near future. All-conference senior guard Elle Ladine is yet to play this season but was listed as questionable for the game against the Bulldogs. She ultimately didn't play.

Washington will play its second-straight of five-straight home games against Vermont at 2 p.m. PT on Nov. 23 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

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