Fresno State, down two key pieces, falls at Boise State. Where was Orlando Robinson?
Fresno State had come from 10 down at halftime, got up two at Boise State on Tuesday with six minutes and change to go by playing through Orlando Robinson, which did not happen nearly enough in the first half.
The Bulldogs have been there before, on the road, in with a chance and this one was better than some others. But as they had in road losses at Cal, San Francisco and Utah, Fresno State foundered at both ends of the floor, blowing a chance to steal a Mountain West Conference men’s basketball victory and losing to the Broncos 65-55 at Extra Mile Arena.
“I thought we settled in and when we got to a point where we had a good game we didn’t make plays and they did,” coach Justin Hutson said.
Robinson gave Fresno State (10-4, 0-1 in the MW) a lead with 6:12 to go on a drive to the basket, the last of his 15 second-half points and game-high 22, and got one shot the rest of the way. Boise State (10-4, 1-0) answered to tie the score at 50, and the next three minutes were just a mess. for the Bulldogs, who were playing without two key pieces in guard Jemarl Baker (knee) and forward Anthony Holland (health and safety protocols).
Fresno State came out of a timeout called by Hutson and guard Donavan Yap turned the ball over and the Broncos’ Marcus Shaver Jr. hit a jumper to put the Broncos back in the lead. Robinson missed badly on a turnaround jumper from the baseline late in the shot clock, and Shaver knocked down an open three. Junior Ballard then had a poor pass stolen by Tyson Degenhart. Coming out of the under 4-minute timeout, Shaver missed a three, but the Broncos’ Mladen Armus pulled down an offensive rebound and was fouled.
Armus made one of two foul shots, Ballard badly missed on another rushed three and Boise State guard Emmanuel Akot knocked down a three to finish a 9-0 run that ended up 17-5 to end the game.
“Halftime, we were down and we had to come together as a collective and just focus in on what we weren’t doing right in the first half and we did,” said Robinson, who moved past Paul George and into a tie for 37th on the Bulldogs’ all-time scoring list with Clarence Metcalfe. “We fought hard, but we kind of let go of the rope a little bit toward the end and Boise punished us for that. Now, we get back to the drawing board and figure out what we did wrong so we can come back and be a better team.
“Sometimes, it may be fatigue, it may be a lack of focus on certain details and then some teams are able to punish you for that, for that lack of attention, maybe trailing Shaver on a three or me not getting out there on a three and then they get these threes and they punish us for it and we then have to come back. The longer we can hold our attention span and the longer we can hold our discipline the better team we’ll be.”
Seriously, two free throws?
Fresno State took 40 shots and scored 34 points in the paint, but Boise State was called for only 10 fouls in the game and the Bulldogs attempted only two free throws. Records are incomplete, but that is the first time Fresno State has been to the line only twice going back through the 2000 season. …
Robinson has scored 977 career points and moved past Babe Williams (964 from 1958-60), Rolland Todd (965 in 1954 and ‘57 and ‘58), Cezar Guerrero (967 from 2014-16), Quinton Hosley (967 from 2005-07), and George (974 from 2009-10) on the Bulldogs’ scoring list. …
Point guard Isaiah Hill hit only 3 of 12 shots in scoring nine points, but had no turnovers in 29 minutes. He has just one turnover in the past two games and 56 minutes and five turnovers over the past four games and 115 minutes. Before this stretch, Hill had 18 turnovers in five games and 126 minutes on the floor.
Up next: Air Force at Fresno State
When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
Where: Save Mart Center
TV/streaming: Mountain West Network
Radio: Bulldog Sports Network (Paul Loeffler, Pat Hill, Marc Q Jones)
Find it fast: Fresno (AM1340), Bakersfield (AM970), Visalia (AM1130), Modesto (FM92.9), Stockton (AM1280), Bulldogs app, iHeartMedia app
The coaches: Justin Hutson (56-44 in fourth season); Joe Scott (12-24 in second season, 247-264 overall)
The records: Fresno State 10-4, 0-1 in the MW; Air Force 7-4, 0-0
The Falcons: Air Force opens Mountain West play on Wednesday against Utah State. The Falcons go into that game on a three-game losing streak, and having difficulties at the offensive end. After hitting 49.6% of their shots and averaging 64.9 points in a 7-1 start, Air Force has hit 35.5% of its shots and averaged just 46.3 points in road losses at Montana, Arkansas State and Tarleton State. The Falcons are led by guard A.J. Walker, who is averaging 16.7 points per game and has had some big games in his career against the Bulldogs. going for 33 points in one of two games last season and 24 in one of three in 2018-19.
Bulldogs women lose
UNLV raced to a 46-31 halftime lead and beat the Fresno State women 73-63 Tuesday at the Save Mart Center. Haley Cavinder led the Bulldogs with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Fresno State shot 24 of 65 (36.9%) compared with UNLV’s 31 of 62. The Bulldogs (4-8, 0-1) are home Friday at 2 p.m. vs. San Diego State.