Bulldogs stay in the zone, rout another basketball foe

Fresno State made it seven wins in a row Wednesday without much anxiety or angst, all while handling a heavy dose of zone for the first time this season.

A 78-52 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Save Mart Center wasn’t really that close.

The Bulldogs (9-2) shot and moved the ball well, even as starting point guard Jaron Hopkins missed a second game with a back injury.

They dominated inside with Terrell Carter II continuing a run, scoring a season-high 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

“We knew we were going to see zone for the better part of the game, but all year this team has been a pretty good zone team,” coach Rodney Terry said. “We have guys that can make shots, but we don’t want to just come down and settle. We want to get the ball inside and tonight our guys really tried to make an emphasis of getting it in there.”

Carter obviously played large in those plans and the Golden Lions, now 0-11, had no real answer for the 6-foot-10, 290-pound center. Arkansas-Pine Bluff put a 6-10 sophomore on the floor in Artavious McDyess, but he goes only 215 pounds.

That’s a lot to give away, and Carter took advantage as he did at Cal Poly, against Cal State Bakersfield and at Long Beach State. In the past four games, he has made 24 of 30 shots (80 percent) in scoring 15.3 points per game.

“Terrell is on a roll right now,” forward Ray Bowles said. “I think it’s all confidence. Ever since we got back from our trip to Mexico, his confidence has been sky high and I think that’s what has been carrying him to have the games he’s been having.”

That was far from the end of it for the Bulldogs, who will get much more of a test Saturday when Pac-12 Oregon is the visitor.

If the Bulldogs weren’t getting the ball inside, they were finding open shots beyond the 3-point line. Sam Bittner hit 5 of 7 there, scoring a season-high 15 in a well-rounded 28 minutes.

He had three rebounds, four assists and four steals with a plus/minus of plus-33.

Fresno State was 10 of 23 from distance – 10 of 21 (47.6 percent) until the final 3 minutes when those in the regular rotation, seven deep without Hopkins or Johnny McWilliams (ankle), were on the bench taking the rest of the night off.

“We definitely talked about the ball not sticking and against zone that ball really needs to move,” Terry said. “You have to be a willing passer and we placed a high emphasis on trying to get the ball inside. We didn’t want to come out and make it a pick up game and shoot a lot of jump shots and not establish ourselves in the paint.

“I thought our guys did a really nice job of that, really looking for our inside guys and I thought our inside guys did their job for a better part of the game.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 10:33 PM with the headline "Bulldogs stay in the zone, rout another basketball foe."