Fresno State men’s basketball: Short-handed Bulldogs fall short in OT at Nevada

Fresno State coach Rodney Terry knew that he would be short-handed at Nevada, with Torren Jones home because of an ongoing medical issue and Karachi Edo and Paul Watson on the trip but doubtful with wrist and calf injuries.

But then Saturday morning, 6-foot-10 sophomore Terrell Carter II took ill and the Bulldogs not only were going to be short-handed against the Wolf Pack but really short, as well, their front line reduced to Cullen Russo and ... well, the 6-9 junior was the only available player listed at forward or center, with 6-6 freshman guard Sam Bittner ending up getting his first career start.

Not a stunner, but they got crushed on the boards 57-32. The Bulldogs also had their worst shooting game of the season, hitting 29.9 percent.

And still they almost got there, coming from 13 down in the second half to force overtime before falling 77-72 at Lawlor Events Center.

Terry was on a slow-burn afterward, giving no credit to the Wolf Pack or specifically Cameron Oliver, who had 20 points and a Mountain West Conference single-game record 24 rebounds, the last with 5 seconds remaining off a missed free throw that allowed Nevada to put the game away.

“No credit,” Terry said. “They had the size on us today because we don’t have our guys, but that’s OK. We’ll bounce back. We competed hard. We left it on the floor.

“Who knows, we get a chance to play these guys again and if we’re mended the right way, we’ll see what happens.”

That it got to the extra 5 minutes didn’t work in the Bulldogs’ favor as short-handed as they were, and it didn’t have to go that far. Fresno State had the last possession in regulation, but senior guard Marvelle Harris, the Preseason Player of the Year in the conference, kicked the ball on a drive out to Bittner wide open in the right corner. Bittner didn’t fire, passing instead up top and the Bulldogs did not end up with a very good shot.

Harris, Terry said, made the right play.

“Sam was wide open for a drive and kick,” Terry said. “He could have selfishly put up a tough shot, but he kicked it out and we had a wide open shot. Sam didn’t take the shot, but he had a lot of confidence in kicking it out to a teammate.”

Harris, Bittner and the Bulldogs were not made available after the game. Fresno State (16-9, 7-5) packed up quickly to hit the highway out of town.

Bittner did get another open look to start the overtime and knocked down that shot, which was followed by a drive by Harris to put the Bulldogs up five.

Nevada (15-9, 7-5) worked its way back and led by three with 32 seconds to go and then one at 73-72 with 25 seconds left, as the Bulldogs’ inability to knock down shots caught up to them again.

Fresno State opened the game hitting 1 of 7 and had stretches where it was 1 of 8, 1 of 12 and 1 of 9, the only run they had when coming from 13 down at the 12-minute mark when getting a three-pointer from Jahmel Taylor, a three from Cezar Guerrero, a jumper from Guerrero, a dunk by Russo and another three from Taylor, hitting 6 of 8 shots there.

That didn’t much matter once into the overtime, though. Eric Cooper Jr. made it 74-72 with 1 of 2 free throws and the Bulldogs could not come up with a tying score with two chances and the ball in the hands of their leading scorer.

Harris, who paced Fresno State with 25 points but was 7 of 24 (29.2 percent) in getting there, missed a jumper and after the rebound went out of bounds off Nevada, the senior guard was fouled on a drive. He missed both foul shots.

The Bulldogs quickly fouled Tyron Criswell on the rebound, but after he missed the second to keep it a one-possession game, Oliver grabbed the last of his record rebounding total – eight at the offensive end – was fouled and knocked down both free throws.

When Fresno State ripped Nevada 85-63 on Jan. 6 at Save Mart Center, Oliver had 13 points and only five rebounds.

“I’m proud of my guys,” Terry said. “My guys are winners in there. I said to my guys before we started the game that we’ve got team guys, we have guys that work hard in practice every day and we have confidence in every guy that we suit up and put in the game.

“We have more than enough pieces to continue doing what we’re doing and to continue to improve. We’re just going to keep the right attitude, the right approach and keep moving forward.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Fresno State men’s basketball: Short-handed Bulldogs fall short in OT at Nevada."