Fresno State gets Junior Ballard back and rebounds with a rout of San Jose State

It has been a rough go to this point for Junior Ballard, the Fresno State guard. He had surgery on a tibia before the season, had a plate put in there, and has been limited in practices and in games, never quite fully right.

He played in just his 12th game on Tuesday and his first in three games. But his court presence and scoring off the bench in his return was a key component in a 73-43 victory at San Jose State, the Bulldogs’ largest margin of victory ever in a Mountain West Conference road basketball game.

“It’s a big difference,” said forward Orlando Robinson, who led the Bulldogs with 18 points and five assists, with five rebounds. “Junior is a high-energy guy and plays with a lot of passion. When he’s on the court, everybody just feeds off that. When he’s gone, we sure do miss that presence. It felt good to have him back.”

The Bulldogs (15-6, 5-3 in the MW) left guard Deon Stroud back in Fresno – coach Justin Hutson said he dinged a knee, but also was late for a practice. But Stroud has been anything but consistent, hitting just 33.3% of his shots including 19.6% from the 3-point line, and was third on the team in turnovers while only sixth in minutes played. So, the reemergence of Ballard came at an opportune time for the Bulldogs, not only in routing the Spartans (7-13, 0-8) but moving forward with a rough stretch of games ahead.

Fresno State plays Nevada on Friday at the Save Mart Center, then Wyoming on Sunday. That is followed by a trip to Colorado State, and home dates against UNLV and San Diego State.

Ballard hit 4 of his 5 shots against the Spartans including 3 of 4 from the 3-point line in scoring 11 points with two rebounds, and didn’t have a turnover in 22 minutes.

“He’s been having a hard go of it,” Hutson said. “He had some back spasms this week. His shin has been hurting.

“It has been hard for him to get back in a rhythm the way he’s been practicing and playing. Very hard to do, dang near impossible. We have to manage his minutes in practice and not worry about what’s going on. His shin was hurting, then he had back spasms, probably because he hadn’t practiced in a while. We just have to try to keep him healthy and keep him consistent doing some stuff because he can help us.”

For Bulldogs, a streaky run of threes

Ballard said he is close there – 90%, maybe 95%, and confident that he will be able to stay on the floor, getting in rehab work with associate director of sports medicine Bri Maher.

“Had the leg surgery, but it’s all up from here,” Ballard said. “That’s the way I look at it. Just trying to go out and get a championship.”

The 6-foot-3 senior can be a streaky hot shooter – he had a five-game stretch this season where he knocked down 46.2% of 26 shots from the 3-point line, a four-game stretch last season where he hit 52% of his 25 threes and a final five-game streak where he hit 50% of 32 threes.

Fresno State could use another one, and opportunities figure to be there. San Jose State was throwing double teams at Robinson in the post, and the Bulldogs knocked down their threes.

Fresno State has been last in the Mountain West much of the season in 3-point field goal percentage, but Ballard was 3 of 4 and point guard Isaiah Hill was 3 of 3. The Bulldogs as a team hit 8 of 12 threes (66.7%), their highest percentage since going 9 of 12 (75%) in a victory over New Mexico on Jan. 13, 2018 at the Save Mart Center.

“We have Orlando, so it’s going to be hard (for opponents) to help,” Ballard said. “Which one are you going to do? Pick your poison … we have a lot of guys out there.”

Bulldogs notes

Freshman Robert Vaihola got all the big-man minutes off the bench, scoring two points with three rebounds in seven minutes. In nine games and 76 minutes on the floor this season, Vaihola has 25 rebounds and three assists. Braxton Meah in 18 games and 134 minutes has 26 rebounds and two assists. ...

Fresno State had averaged 14.0 turnovers over its past five games, after a stretch where it had just 7.2 over the previous five games. The Bulldogs had eight in the first half against the Spartans, but only one in the second half. ...

San Jose State hit just 17 of 46 shots, 37%. It was the 11th time this season the Bulldogs have held an opponent to less than 40%, with a low of 25% in a victory at Weber State.

Up next: Fresno State vs. Nevada

When: Friday, 8 p.m.

Where: Save Mart Center

TV: FS1

• Find it fast: AT&T Uverse (652, 1652), Comcast (35, 408, 731, 1208), DirecTV (219), Dish Network (150).
  
  

Radio: Bulldog Sports Network (Paul Loeffler, Marc Q. Jones)

• Find it fast: Fresno (AM1340), Bakersfield (AM970), Visalia (AM1130), Modesto (FM92.9), Stockton (AM1280), Bulldogs app, iHeartMedia app

The records: Fresno State (15-6, 5-3 in the MW), Nevada (9-10, 3-5).

The coaches: Justin Hutson (61-46, fourth season); Steve Alford (44-32 third season, 553-301 overall)

The Wolf Pack: Nevada lost at UNLV 69-58 on Tuesday, playing without guard Grant Sherfield, who is out with an injury. Nevada hit just 34.5% of its shots in the loss and was 3 of 17 from the 3-point line. The Wolf Pack put together a 12-0 run to beat the Bulldogs 77-74 on Jan. 21 at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, with Desmond Cambridge Jr. scoring five points off steals on back-to-back Fresno State possessions. Robinson had 26 points with 12 rebounds and four assists for the Bulldogs in the loss.

This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 3:48 AM.