Fresno State hands Boise State its first loss at home thanks to late run, clutch shot

A screen was coming.

But with it or without it, Fresno State point guard Isaiah Hill had space out top for an open look at a 3-pointer.

The score was tied with 1 minutes, 10 seconds to go, and Hill didn’t hesitate.

He took the shot, and the deep ball went in for what turned out to be the game’s final points.

And the Bulldogs managed to successfully ride out their roller-coaster performance while holding off Boise State for a 67-64 men’s basketball victory on Tuesday at ExtraMile Arena.

Fresno State was up 10 points at one point, then down nine with 5:01 remaining before closing the game on a 13-1 run.

“I was just confident shooting the three right there and they didn’t get any pressure on me, so I just felt it was time to take that shot,” Hill said. “I’m confident I can make that at crunch time.”

The loss cut deep for the Broncos, who had 18 wins in the bank, including a Mountain West-high 14 victories in conference play, and had not lost on their home floor this season.

Boise State (18-7, 14-6) also was likely one bad loss from throwing an at-large NCAA Tournament resume into the trash can.

This young Fresno State team (11-10, 9-10 in the MW), meanwhile, finally could be hitting a growth spurt, and the Bulldogs have one game remaining in the regular-season on Saturday against Utah State before the conference tournament next week in Las Vegas.

The Bulldogs showed against the Broncos that even though they shot their way out of the double-digit lead by going 1 of 12 with four turnovers during a pivotal stretch, they still managed to recover.

“Happy for them,” Bulldogs coach Justin Hutson said. “When you have 10 new guys and you go through this COVID stuff, you’re traveling and games are canceled and you’re coming back, we coach them really hard.

“We’re positive, but we coach them with tough love, and it was nice to see them get some rewards for their hard work and be able to come through down the stretch and make a comeback.”

Given that rough stretch, watching a double-digit lead snatched away, the comeback came almost out of nowhere.

Boise State went up nine on a pair of foul shots by Derrick Alston with 5:01 to go. The Broncos’ leading scorer was just heating up after a 1 of 11 start with two turnovers, scoring on a drive, then a three, then another drive. He was fouled on that last drive, the fifth for Anthony Holland, one of the Bulldogs’ best options at defending the Broncos’ guard.

“Coach always says, ‘Have that look in your eye,’ and today it finally clicked for us,” Hill said. “We had that look in our eye. We weren’t going down without a fight, regardless if we came out with a win or a loss, we weren’t going down without a fight like we did last time.”

Fresno State, which had blown an 8-point second half lead in losing at Boise State in January, started its run with a pair of free throws from Deon Stroud, who led the Bulldogs with 16 points. Stroud followed with a 3-point play, and Junior Ballard knocked down a wide-open three to get the Bulldogs within one.

Orlando Robinson scored in the lane to put Fresno State up one, and after Boise State tied the score with one of two free throws, Hill was there.

“Obviously, we made some big shots,” Hutson said. “You can stick together, play good defense and it does come down to shot-making sometimes.

“But I like the direction that we went. We moved the ball. We generated good offense and when we were open we knocked them down and then we made everything tough on Boise.”

They still had to deal with Alston and the Broncos, who went in as the top scoring team in the Mountain West. With Holland on the bench, freshman Leo Colimerio picked up and Robinson switched off a screen. Alston’s shot to tie with 47 seconds to go had to get over the wingspan of the Bulldogs’ 7-footer, and wasn’t close.

One final shot from Emmanuel Akot as time expired was no closer, the Bulldogs winning it with a 13-1 run.

“We’re playing our best basketball and this is a perfect time to play our best basketball,” said Hill. who finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

“We’re just going back to the lab, go back and then play Utah State on Saturday and try to keep this momentum and stay positive and keep on going, try to make something positive happen this March.”

Bulldogs’ bullpen falters in loss at San Francisco

Fresno State baseball put together a six-run fifth inning built on RBI singles by Nate Thimjon, Dylan Johnson and Andrew Kachel to break open a scoreless game, but the Bulldogs’ bullpen ended up breaking down in a 7-6 loss Tuesday at San Francisco.

The Dons scored twice in the bottom of the inning and then five times after there were two outs in the sixth to take a lead. San Francisco (4-4), which opened its season taking two of three on the road from No. 2 UCLA, took advantage of five walks and one wild pitch to score two runs.

Darius Foster then doubled in three runs to put San Francisco up.

The Bulldogs (2-2) open Mountain West Conference play with a three-game series at San Diego State starting with a doubleheader on Saturday at 11 a.m. and a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.

All three games will be broadcast by AM940/ESPN.

Also ...

▪ Fresno State swept the Mountain West softball weekly awards. Hailey Dolcini (2-0, perfect game) was Pitcher of the Week and Kaitlyn Jennings (5 for 8, four runs batting leadoff) was Player of the Week.

▪ Fresno State rose to No. 5 in the latest National Collegiate Equestrian Association team rankings.

This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 10:45 PM.