Bulldogs get beaten up by Nevada in Mountain West opener
Fresno State was not close, the end result of a lot of problems in an 80-65 loss to Nevada on Wednesday at Save Mart Center.
In dropping their Mountain West opener, the Bulldogs were flummoxed at the defensive end, the Wolf Pack knocking down some tough shots off turnovers, late in the shot clock, when well guarded. Included was a 10-of-17 night beyond the 3-point line for Nevada, a season-high 58.8 percent.
The Bulldogs also got stuck far too often offensively, committing 13 turnovers while whiffing on 15 of their 20 3-point attempts.
“We didn’t have great ball movement tonight,” coach Rodney Terry said. “The ball stuck and you can’t have it stick against a switching defense and a team that has length that switches on defense. The ball has to move. You have to have player movement, have to have good pace and we didn’t have that from an offensive standpoint.”
The list of issues for Fresno State (10-4), though, was much longer than what it did or did not do at the offensive end.
The Bulldogs led the conference with 8.6 steals per game but had none.
They had no points in transition.
They were outscored 19-9 off turnovers.
They couldn’t come up with key stops, getting no more than three in a row in any half.
Nevada (12-3) got a lead and held it, for 39:24. At one point in the second half, it hit 17 points. The Bulldogs cut it to nine twice, but the Wolf Pack always had an answer with guard Kendall Stephens knocking down 5 of 7 3-point shots in scoring a game-high 19. Forward Caleb Martin added 18 points.
“We didn’t work the game for 40 minutes,” Terry said. “We give those guys a lot of credit for the way they played. They executed what they came to do in terms of their game plan. We did a good job on (Jordan) Caroline, but we let those guys make some shots from the perimeter that was a little bit too much to overcome.”
Robert Kuwada: @rkuwada
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AIR FORCE AT FRESNO STATE
- Saturday: 4 p.m. at Save Mart Center
- Webcast/radio: Mountain West Network (themw.com)/KFIG (940 ESPN), KGST (1600 ESPN Deportes)
- Records: Bulldogs 10-4, 0-1 Mountain West; Falcons 6-7, 0-1
- Of note: The Falcons opened conference play with an 87-58 loss at New Mexico, hitting 37.9 percent of their shots and committing 17 turnovers. Air Force had 15 players get into the game, but only one, Lavelle Scottie, scored in double digits. Scottie hit 5 of 8 shots in getting 12 points. The loss was the fourth in five games for the Falcons, the only win in that stretch a rout of NAIA Johnson & Wales.
NEVADA 80, FRESNO STATE 65
Nevada | Min | FG-A | FT-A | R | F | PT |
Ca.Martin | 39 | 4-11 | 9-10 | 10 | 2 | 18 |
Co.Martin | 32 | 5-12 | 0-1 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
Drew | 32 | 5-8 | 2-2 | 2 | 4 | 13 |
Stephens | 32 | 6-10 | 2-2 | 4 | 1 | 19 |
Caroline | 35 | 5-10 | 1-1 | 7 | 3 | 13 |
Cooke | 14 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Hall | 12 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Foster | 4 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
D.Williams | -- | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Totals | 200 | 27-56 | 16-18 | 28 | 18 | 80 |
Percentages: FG .482, FT .889. 3-pointers: 10-17, .588 (Stephens 5-7, Caroline 2-4, Ca.Martin 1-1, Cooke 1-2, Drew 1-2, Co.Martin 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Team Turnovers: 6 (19 PTS). Blocks: 4 (Drew 2, Co.Martin, Stephens). Turnovers: 6 (Co.Martin 2, Drew 2, Foster, Hall). Steals: 8 (Ca.Martin 3, Cooke 2, Drew, Foster, Stephens). Technicals: None.
Fresno State | Min | FG-A | FT-A | R | F | PT |
B.Williams | 26 | 5-6 | 1-1 | 3 | 3 | 11 |
Bittner | 33 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
Bowles | 28 | 4-10 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
Hopkins | 22 | 1-4 | 2-4 | 8 | 2 | 5 |
D.Taylor | 30 | 3-9 | 9-12 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
J.Taylor | 28 | 3-9 | 0-0 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
McWilliams | 19 | 2-4 | 2-3 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
Carter | 9 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
Grimes | 5 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Totals | 200 | 23-51 | 14-20 | 29 | 17 | 65 |
Percentages: FG .451, FT .700. 3-pointers: 5-20, .250 (J.Taylor 2-8, Hopkins 1-2, Bowles 1-4, D.Taylor 1-4, Bittner 0-1, McWilliams 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Team Turnovers: 13 (9 PTS). Blocks: 5 (B.Williams, Bittner, Carter, Grimes, J.Taylor). Turnovers: 13 (Bowles 4, Hopkins 4, Carter 2, B.Williams, D.Taylor, McWilliams). Steals: 0. Technicals: None.
Nevada | 38 | 42 | — | 80 |
Fresno State | 30 | 35 | — | 65 |
A — 6,008 (15,544).
FRESNO STATE MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
Home games at Save Mart Center
Date | Opponent | Time/result |
Oct. 25 | at Saint Mary’s (exhibition) | L, 85-76 |
Oct. 30 | Pacific Union (exhibition) | W, 99-56 |
Nov. 3 | UC Merced (exhibition) | W, 79-39 |
Nov. 10 | UC Santa Cruz | W, 96-65 |
Nov. 13 | Cal State-Northridge | W, 89-73 |
Nov. 17 | at Arkansas | L, 83-75 |
Nov. 21 | Evansville at Cancun, Mexico | L, 59-57 |
Nov. 22 | George Mason at Cancun | W, 79-73 |
Nov. 26 | Montana State | W, 80-67 |
Nov. 30 | Weber State | W, 83-71 |
Dec. 2 | at Long Beach State | W, 106-70 |
Dec. 5 | Cal State-Bakersfield | W, 70-55 |
Dec. 9 | at Cal Poly | W, 83-63 |
Dec. 13 | Arkansas-Pine Bluff | W, 78-52 |
Dec. 16 | Oregon | L, 68-61 |
Dec. 18 | Cal State-Monterey Bay | W, 93-56 |
Dec. 27 | Nevada | L, 80-65 |
Dec. 30 | Air Force | 4 p.m. |
Jan. 3 | at Utah State | 6 p.m. |
Jan. 6 | at Colorado State | 2:30 p.m. |
Jan. 9 | Boise State | 8 p.m. |
Jan. 13 | New Mexico | 4 p.m. |
Jan. 17 | at San Diego State | 8 p.m. |
Jan. 20 | at Air Force | 1 p.m. |
Jan. 23 | UNLV | 8 p.m. |
Jan. 27 | Utah STate | 4 p.m. |
Jan. 31 | at Nevada | 8 p.m. |
Feb. 3 | at Wyoming | 11 a.m. |
Feb. 6 | San Diego State | 8 p.m. |
Feb. 14 | at San Jose State | 7 p.m. |
Feb. 17 | Colorado State | 4 p.m. |
Feb. 21 | at UNLV | 7 p.m. |
Feb. 24 | Wyoming | 4 or 7 p.m. |
March 3 | at New Mexico | 6 p.m. |
March 7-10 | Mountain West tournament at UNLV |
This story was originally published December 27, 2017 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Bulldogs get beaten up by Nevada in Mountain West opener."