Fresno State holds off New Mexico in MW tournament opener

New Mexico guard Elijah Brown: 6 of 21. He got to the foul line just twice. Tim Williams, the Lobos forward? He struggled for a large stretch as well. So Fresno State, it got what it needed Thursday in a Mountain West Conference tournament quarterfinal.

The Bulldogs, though, worked their way to it, and it was not easy.

What they ultimately wanted, the Bulldogs got that, too. In deep the whole way, Fresno State overcame poor shooting and foul trouble with a wild flurry of huge plays in the final five minutes of a rough and physical game to emerge with a 65-60 victory at Thomas & Mack Center.

Fresno State (20-11) was 16 of 49 and 6 of 21 in the second half, 32.7 and 28.6 percent, before guard Deshon Taylor drilled a deep 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down and 5:08 to go that tied the score at 51-51.

“I wasn’t going to shoot it at first, but my teammates, they were saying ‘shot clock’ so I just had to shoot it,” he said.

Confident that it was going in? “Yeah,” he said.

Taylor followed that with another basket, driving hard to the rim. Another 3-pointer followed, but those three shots by the sophomore guard were just the beginning of some huge plays made by the Bulldogs to advance to the tournament semifinals.

Fresno State, the No. 4 seed and winner of six games in a row, gets No. 1 Nevada (26-6) in a 7 p.m. Friday semifinal – a team it has beaten twice, at home and on the road.

After a 3-pointer by Taylor with 3:09 to go put the Bulldogs up 56-54, he came up with a steal on Brown that led to two foul shots for Jaron Hopkins; good and good.

Williams missed at the other end, and Jahmel Taylor secured the rebound, one of a team-high nine for the Bulldogs’ 6-foot guard.

The Bulldogs failed to score, but Hopkins stole the ball from 7-foot center Obij Aget, who was under the New Mexico basket. He weaved his way up the floor and found Cullen Russo open for a dunk.

Brown answered for the Lobos (17-14), knocking down a 3-pointer that cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 60-57 with 1:21 to play.

Russo missed on a drive, but Paul Watson came up with an offensive rebound while falling to the ground and out of bounds, passing it out for a second-chance opportunity that was cashed in when Jahmel Taylor knocked down a 3-pointer.

“Huge 50-50 play,” coach Rodney Terry said.

Deshon Taylor, Jahmel Taylor, Russo, Watson and Hopkins got the Bulldogs there. Terrell Carter II and Bryson Williams were key pieces as well, as was Nate Grimes and Karachi Edo, who had missed the past six games with a ankle injury.

Edo came off the bench with 12:33 to go as Terry managed his bigs, all of whom played through foul trouble.

“Lot of huge plays,” Terry said. “At the five-minute mark we called a timeout and we said, ‘Hey guys, we have to drive the basketball; we have to try to get to the line; we have to try to make some things happen.’ But it’s a long game and we kept saying, ‘Just keep working the game and we’re going to make some plays; we’re going to get some stops.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Fresno State holds off New Mexico in MW tournament opener."