Fresno State rebounds from first loss. ‘We saw what we needed to do at Cal’

San Diego had some wins, had beaten Nevada and beaten UC Riverside, which had an early-season win at Arizona State. It could cause some problems. But Fresno State had very few in a 63-43 victory over the Toreros on Wednesday at the Save Mart Center, preventing it from becoming much of a game by taking care of the basketball, aggressively finding good shots and more importantly perhaps, staying connected on the defensive end of the floor.

The Toreros’ point total was a season-low. They hit just 37.8% of their shots including a 1 of 12 effort from the 3-point line, an area they had excelled. San Diego went into the game hitting 41.4% of its threes, tied for 13th in the nation.

And, all of the above had coach Justin Hutson looking forward a bit.

“We took a good step tonight, from a team that can score,” Hutson said. “They go through droughts, but they also go through hot spells. It’s about us more than anything, staying consistent and keeping our focus. That’s something we’ve been working on and young guys have to do, not giving them easy baskets in transition, not giving them easy baskets just losing focus, not giving them easy baskets turning the ball over.

“We had one turnover at halftime. That helps our defense. We’ve been playing hard for a few years, but we’ve been giving people turnovers. It’s hard when you’re running 3 on 1, 3 on 2. We really emphasize playing an offensive and defensive game that really compliments each other.”

Fresno State (6-1) put all of those pieces together at the defensive end against San Diego (4-5) and has at other times this season. The Bulldogs beat Santa Clara, limiting the Broncos to 52 points, and they went averaging 88.0 in a 5-0 start. They beat Long Island, allowing 60 points, and it has averaged 76.0 over its past three games.

The Bulldogs weren’t quite there in the loss at Cal, but started to remedy that very quickly, somewhere on the road between Berkeley and Fresno.

“We saw what we needed to do at Cal and we came in this game and worked on what we needed to do and just focused on that,” said forward Orlando Robinson, who led the Bulldogs with 15 points, five rebounds and five assists and also had three blocked shots and a steal at the defensive end.

The Bulldogs’ youth will show at times, Hutson said. But it also will show up, as it did against the Toreros, and it will get better as it goes along, building.

“I’m confident in this,” Hutson said. “What I’m saying is, if we do our job, this will be the worst defensive team that we have when I’m here, because we’ll get better from here. We have a lot of young guys that are going to get better and we’re going to add in some defensive-minded guys.

“Being here for three or four years, we’re going to add in some guys that are going to complement that and some athleticism. This group here is young and young and playing good defense don’t really go together. Those two things don’t match. We’re going to get better. I’m hoping this will be the worst we’ll be for a while.”

Bulldogs notes

Isaiah Hill was limited in practice the past few days after tweaking an ankle at Cal and then picked up a third foul early in the second half, giving Donavan Yap a chance to play some extended minutes. Yap, who had played 10 minutes total over the past four games, was on the floor for 17 minutes.

“I was impressed with Donavan tonight, his minutes that he came in and gave on both ends of the floor,” Hutson said. “I was impressed with everybody, but I was excited for Donavan. How he was able to come in, in big minutes with the game on the line, and do the offensive and defensive job.”

Yap could get more minutes, with Hill struggling a bit. Hill did have three assists against the Toreros – he had zero in 64 minutes in the past two games. But he has hit 9 of 37 shots over the past four, just 24.3%. …

Guard Junior Ballard, who missed the first six games working back from a shin injury, played four minutes to a plus/minus of plus-4. “We didn’t get him a whole lot of minutes,” Hutson said. “I’m not even sure he got comfortable, but he ran around out there a little bit.”

Guard Jemarl Baker, who has been dealing with a knee injury, did not play, missing a fourth game in a row. …

Jordan Campbell hit 6 of 11 shots including 6 of 9 inside the 3-point line in scoring 12 points, but impacted the game at both ends with his athleticism.

“I think he’s getting more comfortable,” Hutson said. “He’s one of those guys that, you know, he’s got the brand-new Ferrari, but he didn’t know how to drive it, right? He’d be a little nervous, right? How hard do you press on the gas? Where’s the stick shift at? The more that he plays basketball, the more he’ll be comfortable with his athleticism. It’s fun to watch.” …

Fresno State returns to action Saturday night at the Save Mart Center against CSUN.