Jaron Hopkins and the Bulldogs steal one down the stretch

For a half of basketball plus 5 minutes or so, Fresno State was having a difficult time with Marcus Marshall, the leading scorer in the Mountain West Conference.

The Nevada guard had hit eight of his first 12 shots, was a big reason the Wolf Pack had been able to extend a lead to double-digits in the second half, 10 with 11:09 to go. But from there and down the stretch the Bulldogs were able to put longer bodies on the 6-foot-3 guard and the game turned there and turned for good with 35 seconds remaining when Jaron Hopkins stole a lazy pass to Marshall and went in for a dunk.

The Bulldogs had a lead and were able to hang on, surviving for a 77-76 victory on Saturday at Save Mart Center.

Fresno State (9-5, 1-1) pushed its lead to four before Marshall knocked down a contested 3-pointer with 6 seconds to play.

The Bulldogs inbounded to Cullen Russo, who did not start for the first time this season after missing a team activity Friday morning. Russo is not the Bulldogs’ best free-throw shooter – he had hit 58.3 percent (35 of 60) and was 2 of 4 in the game to that point – and was promptly fouled. He missed the first and after a timeout missed again, badly, giving the Wolf Pack a shot.

Marshall took it, racing up the floor under pressure and launching from about 30 feet. It was off, and the Bulldogs escaped.

Hopkins, Paul Watson and Jahmel Taylor all had 14 points. Bryson Williams, the freshman from Roosevelt High, came off the bench to add 12 points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes. Karachi Edo had the 10th double-double of his career and first this season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Marshall led Nevada (12-3, 1-1) with 26 points, but after the hot start hit 2 of 9 shots when defended primarily by the 6-7 Watson and the 6-5 Hopkins.

Stat of the game – 18, offensive rebounds and second-chance points for the Bulldogs. Fresno State last had 18 offensive rebounds against a Division I opponent in a 77-62 loss to New Mexico on Jan. 2, 2016.

Edo and Williams both had six offensive rebounds.　

Stat of the game, part II – With Nevada forward Cameron Oliver on and off the floor with foul trouble – he had averaged 33.5 minutes over the past four games, but played only 22 – the Bulldogs scored 50 of their 77 points in the paint.　

Quotable – Hopkins on his steal and dunk: “I felt like they were real lackadaisical with the ball. Maybe they were tired, I don’t know. I knew I could try to shoot that passing lane and stay solid at the same time so I shot the passing lane, took the gamble, and I took off with it and got the dunk.　

Notable – Russo was held out of the starting lineup after his unexcused absence. Terry inserted him into the game with 14:41 to go, which helped turn the game. The Bulldogs were down by five, about to be 10, when Russo entered. But his presence on the floor allowed Terry to switch longer defenders on Marshall, who had 11 of the Wolf Pack’s 16 points to start the second half.

“He was going to have an opportunity, but then we were going to send our message, too,” Terry said. “We got our message across, and I think it gave Bryson an opportunity to get some things done. I thought it was productive for us – the next guy stepped up.

“Cullen is a versatile guy. He’s a versatile defender and a versatile player on offense, but at the end of the day we stand for some things and we hold guys accountable. That’s what we do. When guys don’t do what we expect them to do and be where we expect them to be, then we have consequences that go with that. He handled it the right way.”　

Notable, part II – The Bulldogs are now 6-3 against the Wolf Pack since joining the Mountain West.

Five of the games between the teams have been decided by five or fewer points and two in overtime.

“I’ve been here four years and been going knuckle to knuckle with them except last year in the home game, we ran them out,” Edo said.

Coming up – Somewhere in the game, early, middle but not too late, Hopkins saw the opportunity for the steal that turned the game in the Bulldogs’ favor, storing a tidbit of information away for an opportune moment.

The Mountain West Conference leader in steals had only one against Nevada, but it came at the right time.

This story was originally published December 31, 2016 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Jaron Hopkins and the Bulldogs steal one down the stretch."