When Nevada gets close, Hopkins keeps the Bulldogs moving to big win

For the first half and into the opening of the second, the one thing that stood out for Fresno State point guard Jaron Hopkins was turnovers. He had five in his first 9 minutes on the floor, sped up and playing a bit too fast.

But when a Bulldogs lead that had reached double-digits was cut to two with 13 minutes to go, it was Hopkins that responded.

The 6-foot-5 junior carried the Bulldogs to an 81-76 victory over Nevada on Saturday at Lawlor Events Center, their fourth consecutive victory over a team that was leading the Mountain West Conference at tipoff.

“I just know that I’m capable of making some plays,” Hopkins said. “It was about being aggressive, … making some plays in the lane. We knew we were going to score or get fouled because we knew some of their guys were in foul trouble a little bit, so it was about attacking them and getting in the lane.”

When the Wolf Pack got to within 46-44, Hopkins scored on three consecutive possessions, getting into the lane for a dunk, followed by consecutive drives and layups. On the second of those drives, he also drew a foul and coverted the three-point play.

The junior point guard then got into the paint and hit Bryson Williams for an easy basket, then knocked down a jump shot.

Of the Bulldogs’ final 10 baskets, Hopkins had a hand in eight with six baskets and two assists on his way to another hefty stat line: 19 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Fresno State (13-7, 5-3 Mountain West) had five players score 10 or more in Hopkins, Deshon Taylor (18), Williams (14), Paul Watson (10) and Jahmel Taylor (10).

Nevada (5-2, 16-4) dropped into a share of the conference lead with Boise State (12-6, 5-2), a 75-65 winner at San Jose State.

Stat of the game – Fresno State was 20 of 25 at the free throw line. In somewhat of a basketball oddity, it made more foul shots as the road team than the home team attempted. The Wolf Pack was 14 of 19.

Notable – With the winter storms blasting across the West, Fresno State looked briefly into flying to Reno rather than taking its scheduled bus trip.

They ended up on the bus … for a long time.

The trip, which is about 300 miles and normally takes five or so hours, took 10 because of traffic on the 99, a stop to grab some food, and a two-hour delay in the mountains after trouble getting snow chains on the bus tires.

That obviously is not ideal, but the Bulldogs made it work.

“A lot of our guys were asleep most of the time,” Hopkins said. “It was a long trip … don’t prefer it, but it was something that we had to do and we were able to come out and play to the best of our ability.”

Out front – The Bulldogs led Nevada for all but the first 45 seconds, with a Watson 3-pointer making it 3-0.

Quotable – Fresno State coach Rodney Terry on the Bulldogs’ run of success against the current conference front-runners: “We’re climbing up toward first place ourselves a little bit right now. Nah, we’re just taking it possession by possession and in practice going as hard as we can go and then game by game as hard as we can go. That’s our approach. The biggest thing for us right now is we’re still trying to improve as a team.”

Coming up – Since Terry switched up the starting lineup, Hopkins and Deshon Taylor have turned into a formidable duo at point guard. Against the Wolf Pack, they combined for 37 points, hitting 15 of 20 shots. Hopkins was 9 of 11 and Deshon Taylor was 6 of 9.

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "When Nevada gets close, Hopkins keeps the Bulldogs moving to big win."