Bulldogs get run over, blowing big opportunity in loss to Oregon

Fresno State had won seven in a row, but before that had missed in its first chance at a signature nonconference win, a résumé builder for it and the Mountain West. Other schools in the conference had one, or two. Nevada. Boise State. UNLV.

The Bulldogs had their last and best chance at it Saturday against Oregon, which is reloading after reaching the Final Four a year ago.

Fresno State had a lead and a chance, but lost both with a rough run at the offensive end in a 68-61 loss before a Save Mart Center season high 9,224.

“We didn’t do a great job taking care of the basketball,” coach Rodney Terry said. “We talk a lot about the details this month of December and you have to be able to screen guys to get guys open, guys have to be able to step across and create separation to execute what you’re trying to get done and we didn’t do a good job of that down the stretch.”

Fresno State (9-3) had a 10-point lead at halftime and was up until 7:04 remained when Elijah Brown came up with a steal and layup. There was no stopping the Ducks, at the defensive end or with a badly needed basket on offense.

The Bulldogs were close – but needed much more than just time off the clock.

They struggled against the Ducks’ length – freshman Kenny Wooten, from Manteca, had six blocks to go with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Oregon had 12 in the game, nine in the second half.

“He had a tremendous amount of effect on the game,” Terry said. “Any time you have a shot blocker back there that can erase some mistakes or erase guys giving up penetration into the teeth of your defense it’s a big deal for their team.”

That steal and score by Brown came in a 15-0 run for Oregon. The Bulldogs, from the 12:15 mark when Bryson Williams hit a short jumper, missed 15 shots in a row.

They got into the paint, missed.

They got a look beyond the 3-point line. Missed.

In that run, Fresno State missed six layups and six 3-pointers.

Wooten was a factor, as was Mikyle McIntosh, who had three blocks.

That streak of misses finally ended when Deshon Taylor hit a 3-pointer … with 2 seconds remaining.

In the second half, the Bulldogs were 6 of 25 (24 percent) with 10 turnovers and in the game scored only 18 points in the paint, where they had thrived over the past three weeks against teams much smaller and less athletic than the Ducks.

The Bulldogs in the first half played without the inside presence that had fueled that winning run with Terrell Carter II and Williams going to the bench after picking up second fouls – Carter played 2 minutes and Williams 13.

But they thrived with their defense – Oregon hit just 29.4 percent of its shots in the first half – and worked their way into open 3-pointers.

They hit five of their first nine beyond the line, but they found and created little to nothing in the second half as Oregon caught up and then pulled away.

Brown hit 6 of 10 shots, including 4 of 5 from distance, in scoring a game-high 20 points.

“We knew going into this game that they are a big, hard playing team in the passing lane,” Terry said. “We did a nice job in the first half; snapping passes, meeting passes and executing what we were trying to get done. We knew we couldn’t come out in the second half and make lazy passes and not come out and do what we were trying to do.

“We had some really tough turnovers, and some that led to points. We said going into this game that we could not have turnovers that led to points for us on the other end. It really deflates things in terms of what we are trying to get done on both ends of the floor. Then, we started letting our offense affect our guarding on the other end of the floor. We didn’t guard as hard as we needed to in order to get stops.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2017 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Bulldogs get run over, blowing big opportunity in loss to Oregon."