Bulldogs don’t make many plays, but two in OT send them to win over New Mexico

It was not, in any way, artistic. Plays, the good kind, were few and far between. But Fresno State, which blew a late lead and was forced into five more minutes of very rough basketball, got two big plays in overtime from guard Deon Stroud to pull out a 64-62 victory over New Mexico on Thursday at the Save Mart Center.

Stroud, who had been benched and did not play in a loss at Boise State and did not sub in against the Lobos until the second half, came up with a steal and resounding slam dunk with 31 seconds to go in overtime.

Just that quickly the Bulldogs went from down one to up one, and with the Lobos maneuvering very unsteadily for a shot at the lead, Stroud jumped Makuach Maluach at the 3-point line, contesting and altering a jump shot into a turnover.

Maluach at that point had hit 9 of 17 shots in scoring 24 points, one of the few on the floor who had much success at the offensive end, but the best he could do was push the ball off to the left. Orlando Robinson ended up with it, pushed it ahead and Stroud had to save it from going out of bounds, and giving the Lobos yet another chance.

“He made a big play for us,” coach Justin Hutson said. “He had a really good second half and made a really good play for us. I hope it’s a stepping stone for Deon.”

To that point, it was at times an unsightly contest. “It always feels good to grind out a win like that,” said Bulldogs guard Junior Ballard, who led the Bulldogs with 18 points including a three to get them to within one in OT.

Fresno State (6-6, 4-6 in the MW) had a chance to win when scoring 60 points or less for the first time since a 2018 victory over Air Force – it has lost 14 in a row when held below 60.

The Bulldogs were up by four, 53-49, with the ball and less than 40 seconds to play in regulation, and were taken to overtime after a series of poor plays.

Ballard, making his way up the floor, left the ball exposed and had it poked away by the Lobos’ Kurt Wegscheider.

The Bulldogs then fouled Maluach, allowing the Lobos to cut into that lead with no time coming off the game clock.

After the two made foul shots, Jeremiah Francis III stole the ball from Anthony Holland and scored in the lane, tying the score.

The Bulldogs had one last shot in regulation when Kyle Harding was fouled with 19 seconds to go, but he missed both foul shots and when New Mexico whiffed at the other end, it was on to overtime.

The bar was low – the Bulldogs and Lobos are two of the worst shooting teams in the conference, ninth and 10th in field goal percentage and 10th and 11th in 3-point field goal percentage.

They also have a tendency to turn over the basketball – a lot.

“I thought we started off really well defensively, but we just threw the ball to them or threw it out of bounds,” Hutson said. “You take one step forward and you take a step back sometimes. We couldn’t capitalize on a lot of our defensive stops at the start of the game to get a bigger lead because we had too many silly, non-forced turnovers.”

That was not the only issue. Fresno State in the first half hit just 5 of 27 shots going 5 of 15 from the 3-point line and 0 of 12 inside it. It also had 10 turnovers, but the Lobos (5-10, 1-10) struggled, as well: 9 of 31 with seven turnovers.

Fresno State and New Mexico played a baseball game in 2017 where the Lobos scored more runs than either team scored points in a first half that ended with the score tied at 19. That game, 24-4 New Mexico.

The teams finish the series Saturday at 4 p.m. There’s no broadcast coverage but it will be shown on the online Mountain West Network.

This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 5:50 AM.