Take three on Fresno State win at Cal Poly: Orlando Robinson plays big and that’s big for ‘Dogs

Fresno State put an end to its five-game men’s basketball losing streak with a 62-37 victory at Cal Poly on Saturday night, allowing just three field goals and 16 points in the second half.

The Bulldogs (3-7) for the most part played good defense against a bad offensive team, racking up 10 steals, allowing the Mustangs to hit just 24.5% of their shots including 1 of 16 from the 3-point line.

Here are three takeaways from the victory …

HELLO, O: FRESHMAN EMERGES

Nate Grimes did Nate Grimes things, scoring inside and out in producing 23 points with 12 rebounds, three blocked shots, two steals and two assists.

New Williams had another solid game, scoring 11 points with five steals.

But freshman Orlando Robinson made the biggest impression, and the most progress for the Bulldogs.

Coach Justin Hutson has been trying to get the 6-foot-10 Robinson more comfortable playing closer to the basket with mixed results. But against the Mustangs he did what he was supposed to do – beat up on smaller opponents.

Robinson scored six of his eight points at the rim, didn’t attempt a 3-point shot and pulled a career-high 15 rebounds including five at the offensive end.

He was much more efficient down there in hitting 4 of 6 shots – over the past three games, against UNLV, at Utah State and at Cal, he made just 4 of 17 shots (23.5%) inside the 3-point line.

He also looked comfortable doing it, which will be a big deal if Robinson can build on it. Williams said he will be in the freshman’s ear.

“We saw Orlando’s matchup – he had a smaller guy on him so we were in his ear all game, telling him to attack that guy, telling him to be aggressive,” Williams said.

“He has that ability. He’s 6-10. He’s a strong guy and he can finish a lot of baskets. Just being aggressive like that is very pivotal for our team.”

Hutson will keep pressing a player who could develop into a very tough guard in the Mountain West Conference.

“It’s extremely important,” the Bulldogs’ coach said. “He’s not going to get stronger until the offseason when he’s in the weight room, but we are working on him on his balance and his decision making.

“He can draw double teams and you know how that is. He’s one guy that can double teams and create offense for himself and for his others and that’s exciting.”

Robinson and Grimes had 27 rebounds between them – Cal Poly played 10 deep and had 25 rebounds as a team.

ABOUT THAT DEFENSE

Cal Poly came in averaging 67.4 points per game, ranking 274th in the nation, and had scored more than 70 just once against Division I opponents.

It had 72 in a loss to Tennessee State.

But still, no one had taken them apart like the Bulldogs did. The Mustangs scored at just .597 points per possession, hit 12 of 49 shots (24.5%) including 1 of 16 (6.3 percent) from the 3-point line.

They didn’t make a shot in the second half until the 7:08 mark and finished with just three in the final 20 minutes.

“We went in at halftime and we just talked about playing that brand of Bulldog basketball that we put our name on, our stamp on,” said Williams, who had five of the Bulldogs’ 10 steals.

“When we came out, that was our main focus, to not let them get any threes, to be solid on the ball, guard the ball, communicate and as we always say, be connected. We just played possession by possession and tried to make sure we did our job on every possession down and every time we got a stop we were on to the next play and then when we come back down we wanted to get another stop.”

By the numbers, here is what Cal Poly did against the Bulldogs compared with the Mustangs’ season-low coming into the game.

Field goals – 12, 21 at Saint Mary’s

FG% – 24.5, 36.9 at Iowa

3FG% – 6.4, 13.6 at Iowa

ORtg – 59.7, 73.8 at Saint Mary’s

TO% – 24.2, 23.5 at Creighton

BULLDOGS MISSING THE POINT

Freshman guard Jarred Hyder joined Noah Blackwell (knee) on the bench – Hyder did not play due to some tendinitis in his knee.

Fresno State has some time to manage that – the Bulldogs don’t play again until Friday against IUPUI at the Save Mart Center, and have their next three at home before getting back into Mountain West Conference play.

But with both Hyder and Blackwell out, the Bulldogs threw the ball around a bit. They had a season-high 20 turnovers and still won by 20-plus points, which obviously doesn’t happen very often and is difficult to do. Fresno State had 20 or more turnovers in a game just three times since 2010, going 1-2 with a 78-76 overtime win at Drake in 2016 with 21 turnovers.

Once the Bulldogs extended their lead in the second half, Hutson slowed the game down, called some plays, got them opportunities in the half court that kept the Mustangs from making any sort of run back into the game.

“Young group on the road, you never know how they’re going to respond and they responded like I want them to.” Hutson said. “We played defense. We controlled what we could. I slowed them down a little bit, called more plays so we wouldn’t turn the ball over.”