Bulldogs find the zone, top 90 for third game in a row in 93-53 win over UT-Martin

After finals and before Christmas, this was a get in, get out and go home for the holidays game against an overmatched opponent and it was scheduled as such; a late-December tradition for a lot of programs.

But Fresno State got a little more out of a 93-53 victory on Saturday over Tennessee-Martin at the Save Mart Center than might have been expected, the Bulldogs faced with a ton of zone and still fairly well filleting the Skyhawks.

That is a step forward for a team that has now won seven games in a row. Fresno State the past few years struggled against different zones and did again in a matchup against Cal Poly at the start of December, a 76-67 Bulldogs victory.

They had 10 assists in the game.

“Cal Poly helped us with that,” said coach Justin Hutson, who in his first season has the Bulldogs 9-2 and off to their best start since 2006-17 when 13-2.

“It was a little different. They weren’t the exact same zones, but they were similar. Preseason games, that’s what they’re for. You work on it in practice, but then you never really know until you can get out in the game. I thought we moved the ball a lot better, but we’ve worked on it quite a bit because in zones you have to be able to see things before they come open sometimes.”

Against the Skyhawks (5-5) Fresno State had 11 assists in the first half, and finished with 25, the most it has had in a game since it had 27 in a victory over Seattle in 2011.

Noah Blackwell, who has hit a high gear since senior Deshon Taylor went down with a dislocated left elbow, had six of those assists in the first half and finished with eight to go along with 12 points, four rebounds and one steal.

Over the three games since that injury to Taylor, victories over Long Beach State, Cal and now Tennessee-Martin, Blackwell has averaged 15.7 points with 7.7 assists and has only four turnovers in 105 minutes on the floor.

Fresno State has averaged 93.3 points a game in that stretch, putting up 92 in the victory over the 49ers, 95 in the win over the Golden Bears and 93 against the Skyhawks. The Bulldogs haven’t been in the 90s in three consecutive games since 2001, and two of those games were vacated due to an ineligible player.

They knocked down a season-high shots from the 3-point line, had five players score in double figures led by Braxton Huggins, who hit better than 50 percent of his shots from the floor and the 3-point line, going 7 of 13 and 6 of 11 for 20 points.

They went on big runs in that second half – 13-0, then 20-0.

“We’re having a lot of fun,” said guard New Williams, who had 19 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two blocked shots and one steal.

A lot of that offense is spinning off defense, and Tennessee-Martin had little chance to keep up with the Bulldogs once Hutson got his team to settle in a bit.

The score was tied at 16 and still a one-possession game with 10:38 to go in the first half, but from that point Fresno State allowed Tennessee-Martin only 13 baskets.

The Skyhawks came in averaging 80.0 points per game and had six players averaging 10 or more points per game, though they did open the season with a 113-47 victory over something called St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

In the second half, Tennessee-Martin was 7 of 27, 25.9 percent.

“Our offense is stemming from our defense,” Williams said. “Coach Hutson focuses on playing hard on the defensive end and making sure we get the stops. That’s what drives our offense and keeps us in the high scoring numbers during the game.”

Next up

The Bulldogs are off until Saturday, Dec. 29, against Utah Valley in another 4 p.m. tipoff at the Save Mart Center. It’s their last nonconference game before starting Mountain West Conference play Jan. 2 at San Jose State.