Take 3 on Fresno State loss at Nevada: How the Bulldogs faltered down the stretch

Fresno State had a huge opportunity to knock off one of the hottest men’s basketball teams in the Mountain West on its home floor, nursing a nine-point lead inside of seven minutes to play Saturday night at Nevada.

The Bulldogs just didn’t finish.

Fresno State botched too many opportunities down the stretch, hitting just 2 of 10 shots including six misses from the 3-point line in a 78-76 loss at the Lawlor Events Center – a place where Nevada has now won 20 straight against Mountain West opponents.

Fresno State’s last miss from behind the arc summed up the final 6:45.

With the Bulldogs frittering away too much clock when working a high pick-and-roll and, Fresno State ended up settling for a handoff to guard New Williams who took the shot.

Williams had played only seven minutes in the second half and, to that point, had not even attempted a shot over the final 20 minutes.

Fresno State (10-18, 6-11) moved to 3-8 in games decided by six points or less.

Here are three takeaways from the game …

THE FINAL PLAY

Down two points, the Bulldogs got a stop when they most needed it with freshman Anthony Holland forcing Wolf Pack guard Jalen Harris to attempt a tough, contested 2-pointer late in the shot clock.

Nate Grimes tipped the rebound away from Nevada’s Robby Robinson to teammate Niven Hart with 27.9 seconds remaining.

Coach Justin Hutson had a timeout available but let the Bulldogs play on.

They got exactly what they wanted.

Noah Blackwell and Nate Grimes worked the high pick-and-roll, with Hart in the left corner and Williams in the right corner.

And Fresno State got Nevada to switch defenders with 12 seconds remaining.

The 6-foot-3 Blackwell ended up being defended by the 6-foot-8 Robinson out top. And the 6-foot-8 Grimes worked into the paint, guarded by 5-10 Jazz Johnson.

But despite two mismatches in Fresno State’s favor, nothing happened.

Hutson said the play had “been working all night long. The floor was spread with shooters. And we just dribble, dribble, dribble, and got nothing out of it.”

Blackwell ended up handing it off to Williams about 28 feet from the basket with 6 seconds remaining. Williams tried to get some space, defended by Harris, and ended up taking the long three with 2 seconds to go.

“They were guarding it the same way they’ve been guarding it,” Hutson said. “We have two experienced guys who have been playing well off of it, and I don’t think we were aggressive enough. Then all of a sudden, we just go hand the ball off.

“I should have called (timeout) earlier. If I was Nostradamus, I should have called it earlier and told them how aggressive I wanted to be and set the play up, move it around.

“But once he went to hand the ball off to New it was too late,” Hutson added. “If I call it, now we’re at four and I’m going to get a hard shot instead of him maybe going by the guy.”

FREE THROWS GETTING EXPENSIVE

Fresno State is one of the worst teams at the free throw line in the conference – 10th of 11, at 70.5% going in.

But in late January it went through a four-game stretch where it hit 89.6% of its foul shots, 60 of 67. That was followed by a four-game stretch where it made just 59.5% of its free throws, 44 of 74.

The Bulldogs were 7 of 10 in the first half at Nevada, but only 5 of 11 in the second.

“We make the foul shots,” Hutson said, “we probably win the game.”

The loss at Nevada was the Bulldogs’ eighth this season by six points or less, and fifth by two points or less.

Here is how the Bulldogs have shot at the line in those games (final score in parentheses) …

▪ at San Diego (72-66, OT): 14 of 21, 66.7%

▪ at Northridge (73-72): 7 of 12, 58.3%

▪ vs. UNLV (81-80, 2OT): 20 of 28, 71.4%

▪ at Cal (69-63): 12 of 18, 66.7%

▪ vs. San Francisco (71-69): 6 of 13, 46.2%

▪ vs. UC Riverside (60-57): 9 of 13, 69.2%

▪ at UNLV (68-67): 14 of 19, 73.7%

▪ at Nevada (78-76): 12 of 21, 57.1%

“We’re just inconsistent,” Hutson said.

DEFENDING HARRIS

Nevada’s Harris was averaging 26.1 points in conference games, highest in the Mountain West, and scored a game-high 20.

But the Bulldogs, who have had some difficulties defending high-scoring guards, took a step forward there.

Harris, who has six 30-point games in conference play, hit just 7 of 20 shots (35%), including 1 of 4 from three and had five turnovers.

It was his poorest shooting game in Mountain West play. Before matching up against the Bulldogs, Harris’ lowest shooting percentage in a conference game was 41.2%, going 7 of 17 for 20 points at San Jose State and 19 points against New Mexico.

Over the past six games, he had hit 51.9% of his shots in averaging 31.3 points. Harris spent some time long after the game out on the floor, getting up shots.

This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 11:42 PM.