Bulldogs’ New Williams puts up 24 points as Bulldogs race away from IUPUI in rout

Fresno State has been beat up in the backcourt with Noah Blackwell and Jarred Hyder both down with knee injuries.

Yet despite playing without a true point guard, senior New Williams and the Bulldogs posted their second consecutive blowout victory with a 95-64 rout of IUPUI on Friday at the Save Mart Center.

Williams knocked down 9 of 15 shots in scoring a 24 game-high points, which was the third time in the past four games he tallied at least 20 points.

In his first 41 games at Fresno State, Williams had scored 20 points or more just once.

“Just being comfortable,” he said. “Coach has a lot of confidence in me. My teammates have a lot of confidence in me, so I’m comfortable out there on the floor and I’m just playing free and playing my game.”

The Bulldogs (4-7) had plenty more in taking apart the Jaguars, who had a rough trip to California after losing leading scorer Marcus Burk to an injury in the first half and another starter in Isaiah Williams with an injury in the second half.

Fresno State freshman Orlando Robinson had 11 points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes. Freshman Niven Hart put together his best game of the season, hitting 6 of 11 shots in scoring 16 points with six rebounds and two assists. Senior Nate Grimes had 12 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes.

The 95 points was a season-high and Fresno State, as was its 21 assists. The Bulldogs also limited their turnovers to 10 and had a 46-27 advantage in rebounding.

“That was something we talked about – turnovers and rebounds,” Bulldogs coach Justin Hutson said. “We talk about it every game, but this was a very good rebounding team. That was a huge emphasis for us.

“Turnovers, for us, a lot of times they’re self-forced. So we talked about making the easy play and I thought we did that for the most part.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 9:36 PM.