Fresno State’s pressure up the floor helps close door on Boise State in 65-63 victory
The Fresno State Bulldogs were on the right side of the final score in their 65-63 men’s basketball win Wednesday night over Boise State.
But they were on the wrong side in a lot of areas that often play in the outcome – down 16-4 in second-chance points, down 20-5 in bench scoring, down 15-0 in fast-break points, down 24-20 in points in the paint.
The Bulldogs’ play at the defensive end trumped all of that, never really allowing the Broncos to run offense outside of a six-minute stretch in the first half when they thrived hitting 8 of 10 shots.
After that they were 14 of 46, never scoring on more than two possessions in a row and going through stretches where they were 0 of 5 and 2 of 10, 0 of 3 and 1 of 11.
In the second half the Bulldogs pressured up the floor, with the desired result.
“We wanted to do it a little more in the first half, but sometimes our intensity dropped,” coach Justin Hutson said. “In the second half, they’re sitting right in front of me so I’m standing right there so I can yell at you to get up.
“They’re a good executing team. If you let them walk the ball up the floor and let them execute, they can pick you apart and make you look bad. We wanted to pressure without fouling and kind of take them out of their rhythm. Didn’t always work. They’re such a good team. We didn’t speed them up as much as we wanted to in the first half, but in the second half I think we sped them up a little bit.”
Reigning in Broncos
The Bulldogs did the same thing in the second half of a 63-53 victory at Boise State on Jan. 19, and the Broncos likely have seen enough of them this season.
Boise State averages in two games against Fresno State …
▪ Points: 58
▪ FG-FGA, Pct.: 43 of 111, 38.7
▪ 3FG-FGA, Pct.: 7 of 38, 18.4
▪ FTA: 12.5
▪ Assists: 9
▪ Turnovers: 12.5
Boise State in 11 games against the rest of the MW …
▪ Points: 75.9
▪ FG-FGA: 295 of 614, 48.0
▪ 3FG-FGA: 89 of 254, 35.0
▪ FTA: 18.8
▪ Assists: 12.7
▪ Turnovers: 9.8
The Broncos had 12 offensive rebounds, which is a lot of second chances, a season-high for Boise State, and turned them into 16 points. But they still were just 8 of 24 at rim on layups and dunks and scored at 0.955 points per possession, the first time in six games that they were held under 1.000 points per possession.
They finished 22 of 60 and 3 of 17 from three, 36.7 and 17.6 percent.
Alex Hobbs, second on the team in scoring at 12.4 points per game, scored 18. But Justinian Jessup and Derrick Alston, first and third at 13.1 and 12.3 points per game, were a combined 5 of 18 and 0 of 5 from the 3-point line.
Layup line
▪ Deshon Taylor did not have much of a game at the offensive end, hitting 3 of 8 shots in scoring 11 points with two assists and five turnovers, but he did move into 19th place on the all-time Fresno State scoring list with 1,301 points.
Taylor moved past Chris Herren, who scored 1,297 points from 1996-99.
▪ The Bulldogs hit 44.7 percent of their shots, 32.1 percent at the 3-point line. But they also turned over the ball 13 times, eight in the second half, and scored at 0.985 points per possession, their lowest in their past five games.
They have scored at less than 1.000 points per possession four times in conference play, twice in games against Boise State.
“They scout you. They know your personnel. They know your tendencies,” Hutson said. “You can’t put in a whole bunch of new stuff this time of year and we had to get to our second action a little more. When we did, we looked good. When we didn’t, we were very stagnant. But they didn’t score too well, either.”
▪ Christian Gray played six minutes off the bench and scored two points with three rebounds, the basket his first in conference play.
▪ Freshman Aguir Agau did not get a shot up in 12 minutes on the floor, but had two offensive rebounds, one assist and one steal when the Broncos were in transition.
He had a plus-minus of plus-11, highest on the team and almost double Braxton Huggins’ plus-6. Huggins scored a team-high 26 points, including a three-point play with 28 seconds left to put the Bulldogs ahead to stay.
▪ The Bulldogs, who trailed for more than 29 minutes, had five players on the plus side of the plus-minus – Agau, Huggins, Nate Grimes (plus-3), Gray (plus-2) and New Williams (plus-1).
▪ Fresno State has won 44 conference games over the past four seasons, second in the Mountain West to No. 7 Nevada with 49.
▪ Boise State is 1-6 in games decided by three points or less. The Broncos have lost six games by three points or less in a season just one other time, 1983-84. The last five games that season were decided by three points or less, and they lost four of them.