Three takeaways from Fresno State’s loss at Nevada: Oops, not hoops, adding up

Fresno State struggled at the offensive end, again. But it had other issues as well in a 79-65 loss at Nevada on Sunday at the Lawlor Events Center, among them an inability to defend Wolf Pack guard Grant Sherfield, who eviscerated the Bulldogs’ meek attempts at defending ball screens.

Sherfield, who had 23 points in the opening game of this series and 20 or more in five games in a row coming in, hit 8 of 15 shots in scoring 27 points, had eight assists and with the exception of a six-minute stretch in the second half controlled the game.

When the Bulldogs did slow down Sherfield and had a chance to take a big bite out of a double-digit Wolf Pack lead, their own inefficiency and defensive lapses thwarted every attempt at a run.

“For where we’re at, I was really happy with our effort – this wasn’t a matter of not trying out there tonight,” coach Justin Hutson said. “This was a matter of when we go on a run we have to be solid.

“We can’t just have an ‘oops.’ Too many oops out there when we’re going on a run. When we’re trying to play a good team on the road, we can’t have more oops than they have. Can we get better with our effort? Of course. As we get more mature will we be able to sustain it longer? Yes. But just too many mistakes, and a lot of them were unforced.”

Fresno State (5-5, 3-5 Mountain West) turned over the basketball 18 times and had only eight assists. It shot the ball better than it had on the road, but failed to take advantage of a season-high 37 foul shots.

The Bulldogs, ranked 326th in the nation in free throw percentage at 61.8%, hit at a higher percentage. But in going 23 of 37 at the line (62.2%), the volume of misses obviously didn’t help.

What did that look like on the floor? The Bulldogs cut a double-digit deficit to nine with 7:03 to go, but their next three possessions went turnover, missed layup and turnover.

Orlando Robinson led the Bulldogs with 15 points and eight rebounds and guards Isaiah Hill and Deon Stroud both scored 13 points.

Here are three takeaways from the game …

Bulldogs’ big guard problem

Hutson said there wasn’t any confusion on the floor with how the Bulldogs wanted to defend ball screens, just some errors in execution.

But their struggles trying to defend leading backcourt scorers could be a problem with a two-game series up next at Boise State, which is led by 6-foot-9 guard Derrick Alston (16.5 ppg) and also has Devonaire Doutrive (12.5 ppg), Marcus Shaver (13.1 ppg) and RayJ Dennis (11.6 ppg) to deal with.

The Bulldogs have allowed 20 or more points to a leading backcourt scorer in five games in a row with Wyoming’s Marcus Williams, San Jose State’s Richard Washington and Sherfield combining to hit 48.3% of their shots including 44.1% from three while averaging 4.0 assists and 24.8 points.

Sherfield scored 10 of the Wolf Pack’s first 11 points and had 18 by halftime, taking advantage of nearly every Bulldogs’ mistake and at other times just beating them off the dribble.

“We didn’t want any 3-pointers from him,” Hutson said. “He had one on the night. And, we didn’t want to foul him and that’s where we messed up. He was 10 for 10 from the line.

“We followed some of our game plan, but we didn’t follow others and it was well within our reach and we have to be much better at that.”

Junior Ballard and the 3-ball

Guard Junior Ballard, who scored 17 points in his Fresno State debut and 16 in the next seven games while struggling to knock down open shots, might have found something in the day between games in Reno.

The Cal Poly transfer hit 4 of 7 shots including 4 of 6 at the 3-point line, almost matching his season total. He went in 5 of 33 from three, just 15.2%, and on Friday had played 18 scoreless minutes, going 0 of 5 and 0 of 1 from three.

“Junior and Anthony Holland, they bring defense, rebounding, intensity, to every possession,” Hutson said. “Do they make mistakes? Yes. But they bring that to every possession.

“We have to try to ride through some of those missed shots, but continue to give other guys chances because we have other guys that can score the ball, and the more that we can get other guys that can sustain defensive intensity and taking care of the ball, now we can have a rotation where we’re saying we’re having consistency at both ends of the floor and you can give other guys more chances to make shots.”

That’s some foul shooting

Fresno State has hit 70% or better of its foul shots in only two of its 10 games – 70% would still only be 180th in the nation, starting play Sunday.

Is that a product of a lack of time in the gym and in practice after pausing three times for COVID-19 quarantines, something they can turn around?

Here are the Bulldogs’ free throw numbers this season, and career …

Isaiah Hill – 25 of 28, 89.3%; 77.9%

Christian Gray – 17 of 25, 68.0%; 61.1%

Deon Stroud – 24 of 42, 57.1%; 60%

Orlando Robinson – 43 of 71, 60.6%; 67.1%

Jordan Campbell – 9 of 16, 56.3%; 58.3%

Devin Gage – 4 of 6, 66.7%; 73.9%

Kyle Harding – 3 of 6, 50.0%; 50%

Junior Ballard – 6 of 13, 46.2%; 70.6%

Braxton Meah – 3 of 10, 30.0%; 30.0%

Anthony Holland – 0 of 1, 0.0%; 66.7%

At this point, the Bulldogs have five players that have made a higher percentage of their career foul shots than they have made this season.

Layup lines

• The Bulldogs last attempted 37 or more foul shots in a game on Dec. 19, 2018. They were 29 of 38 in a 95-73 victory, 76.3%.
• Anthony Holland, injured when taking an elbow to the head in the second half of the opening game of the series, did not play Sunday. The Bulldogs have a fairly quick turnaround before heading to Boise State – the games are Wednesday and Friday.
  
  
• Fresno State had 16 second-chance points in the two games at Nevada. In taking two games from San Jose State at the Save Mart Center, they had 15 and 21 second-chance points, a total of 36.
• The Bulldogs, second in the Mountain West with 4.5 blocks per game, had none Sunday against Nevada.
• Nevada turned the Bulldogs’ 18 turnovers into 24 points, the most points off turnovers it has scored in a game this season.

Up next for the Bulldogs

FRESNO STATE AT BOISE STATE

Where, when: ExtraMile Arena in Boise; Wednesday, 8 p.m.

TV/radio: FS1/ESPN (AM 940)

Records: Bulldogs 5-5, 3-5 Mountain West; Boise State 12-1, 8-0

Series: Boise State leads 23-21

Coaches: Justin Hutson (39-33, in third season); Leon Rice (210-129, in 11th season)

On Boise State: The Broncos have won 12 in a row and have won their eight Mountain West games by an average of 23.4 points, ranking second in scoring margin in conference games. Boise State has played New Mexico (0-8), San Jose State (0-8), Air Force (2-5) and Wyoming (1-4), which are the bottom four teams in the league and a combined 3-25 in conference play. Senior Derrick Alston is leading the Broncos at 16.5 points per game. Power Five transfers Abu Kibag (Oregon) and Devonaire Doutrive (Arizona) are averaging 13.7 and 12.5 points.

This story was originally published January 17, 2021 at 4:31 PM.