Take 3 on Fresno State victory at San Jose State: Can freshman Niven Hart ignite late-season run?
Fresno State escaped San Jose State with an 84-78 victory Wednesday at the Event Center with freshman Niven Hart scoring 30 points in 31 minutes off the bench.
Hart is the first Fresno State freshman to score 30 points in a game since Randy Holcomb did it against Sacramento State on Dec. 1, 1998.
In addition, Nate Grimes and Orlando Robinson put together double-doubles with 10 points and 11 rebounds, and 13 points and 12 rebounds, respectively.
It also is the third time this season the Bulldogs have had two players with 10 or more rebounds in the same game – something they hadn’t achieved even once in a season since 2015.
Fresno State almost had four players finish with double-doubles with Hart collecting nine rebounds and senior Noah Blackwell adding eight boards.
Here are three takeaways from the game …
THE HART ATTACK
Hart struggled early in the year, pressing shots up at the offensive end. In his first 10 games, he hit just 31.3% including 28.6% on 2-point shots.
That, and some defensive deficiencies, made it difficult for coach Justin Hutson to put the freshman on the floor for extended periods.
But in the past three games …
Colorado State: 29 points, 4 rebounds, 28 minutes
UNLV: 15 points, 2 rebounds, 24 minutes
San Jose State: 30 points, 9 rebounds, 31 minutes
That’s 74 points in 83 minutes, and in those games he has hit 28 of 54 shots (51.9%), including 21 of 34 (61.8%) on 2-point shots.
“Early in the year, I was still more of a freshman,” Hart said. “I was learning, because high school basketball and college basketball are totally different. Coach Hut was teaching me the game, and learning the game, trying to adjust at the same time, that was kind of rough. I’m used to playing my high school game. I had to change my game up a little bit, play within the game, play within college basketball at the same time.
“Coach Hut helped me get through it. My teammates like New (Williams) and Nate, they helped me get through it.”
When Williams was a freshman at Auburn, he scored a total of 18 points in 21 games. Grimes was a redshirt his first season at Fresno State, but the following year scored 22 points over 13 games.
“He’s maturing a little bit, buying in, figuring it out,” Hutson said. “I love his talent and his swag that he thinks he can score. But he’s playing a little better on the defensive end, and he’s taking a little better care of the ball and shots. That’s what it’s about, so he gets more minutes.”
His ability to score at all three levels stands out – and the Bulldogs needed it when struggling much of the game against the Spartans’ zone.
Hart scored 12 of his points at the rim on layups and dunks, two on a jump shot, nine from the 3-point line, and was 7 of 11 at the foul line.
The 11 free throws tie the most for a Bulldog this season – Robinson had 11 in a loss to UC Riverside back in December.
“Coach wants me to score the ball,” Hart said. “He knows that I can score the ball. That’s what I’m good at, so if I have good looks, he wants me to take advantage of the opportunities I get.
“I try to be aggressive. That’s just my role on the team.”
ABOUT THAT ZONE
Fresno State turned the ball over 15 times against the Spartans’ zone, struggling to attack or find an open shooter once getting the basketball to a big in the middle.
Grimes had five of those turnovers, Robinson four.
“We were taking too long,” Hart said. “We’d get the ball in the middle and we wouldn’t attack right away. Coach Hut called a timeout and told us to attack right away when he get a chance and that’s why the turnovers slowed down.”
The Bulldogs did not turn the ball over during the final 10:23 – the last 5:23 in regulation and then the overtime period.
“We had the guys that weren’t turning it over in there,” Hutson said. “That’s attacking better. It’s making better decisions. It’s a zone – each decision is going to be different every time.
“It’s finding the open man, making better decisions, staying aggressive.”
SHOOT AND MISS
The Bulldogs were playing the worst shooting team in the Mountain West and allowed the Spartans to hit just 32% of their shots (24 of 75) so that explains all of the rebounds.
Do they get credit, or was that just a poor shooting team doing what it seemingly has done through its first 24 games?
There was a lot of Fresno State in that.
The Bulldogs thrived at the defensive end by making the Spartans take tough shots – for long stretches it was all threes and long twos.
San Jose State started the game 3 of 20 and didn’t score in the paint until the 5:19 mark in the first half.
Incredibly, it also started the second half 3 of 20 and the Bulldogs ended up outscoring the Spartans 38-18 in the paint.
The Spartans went in hitting only 39.8% of their shots including 47.6% of their 2-point shots – that, too, the lowest in the conference.
Layups and dunks help, if you can get them.
The Bulldogs didn’t let them get many, particularly early.
“They have a lot of good 3-point shooters so we were trying to stay extended on them and early inside we were stopping them,” Hutson said. “But then we stopped moving our feet and walling up and they got a couple of baskets inside on us.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 11:00 PM.