Fresno State gets stuck in a zone, drops critical Mountain West game at Colorado State

The fragility of the Fresno State Bulldogs was on full display Friday at Colorado State, suffering a 65-50 loss at Moby Arena.

There was not much the Bulldogs could do with Colorado State’s David Roddy or point guard Isaiah Stevens, which was nothing new considering how past outings have gone between the two teams.

Roddy and Stevens combined to hit 14 of 23 shots in scoring 21 and 14 points on Friday. And in six career games against Fresno State, Roddy is now averaging 18.2 points and 9.0 rebounds, and Stevens 14.8 points and 4.7 assists.

Fresno State (16-8, 6-5 in the MW) just has not had a body that can match up well against the 255-pound Roddy, or a guard with the quickness to defend Stevens with much success.

But the Bulldogs’ inability to work a consistent offense outside of big man Orlando Robinson was just as troublesome, particularly in the second half when the Rams threw a match up zone at them.

“It caused some confusion for us, but it came down to us making shots,” Robinson said. “After we figured out what they were doing, we just missed the shots that we took. That was about it. We had it right there. We just had to knock them down. That’s what separated us tonight.”

Robinson hit 9 of 16 shots in scoring a game-high 24 points with eight rebounds and two assists. But the rest of the Bulldogs were a combined 10 of 38 (26.3%) with nine turnovers.

And it was much worse in the second when the Bulldogs started settling for threes.

That is not a strength.

Fresno State, which entered Friday as the eighth-best team in the Mountain West in 3-point field goal percentage at 33.6%, put up 19 threes in the second half. The Bulldogs took 29 shots, with 19 threes.

They were 2 of 19, which obviously adds to the degree of difficulty in taking out a team like Colorado State, the highest scoring team in the conference.

“I thought we let go of the rope a little bit tonight, in the second half,” Bulldogs coach Justin Hutson said. “Some of it was Colorado State. You have to give much credit to them, Very experienced team. Very talented team, and they were playing in front of a great home crowd.

Bulldogs buried by their own threes

“But I thought we could have played better in the second half. I thought we could have had more resistance on the defensive end, and I thought the ball could have moved a little more purposefully on the offensive end and it didn’t. When it doesn’t happen like that in front of a crowd like this, you get down quick.”

That sums it up. The Bulldogs led 28-25 at halftime, with Robinson scoring 16 of those points.

But Colorado State (19-3, 9-3) had the lead less than one minute into the second half and it went from three points to 10 in a little more than two minutes, from 12:56 to 10:32. Once there, that was pretty much it. Fresno State hit just 5 of its final 16 shots, never stringing together even two baskets in a row.

Robinson got seven shots in the second half, but two of them came off of offensive rebounds.

“I don’t know if we got tentative,” Hutson said. “I don’t know about that, but I know we didn’t operate against it at the level we needed to. We had some wide open looks, there was no question.

“But once those wide-open looks don’t fall, we’ve got to still sustain with our same modus operandi. We have to still move the ball. We have to execute, get it inside and if we kick it out then shoot it again. We got some good looks, and I thought there were some times we did not get the look we were looking for.”

Bulldogs’ notes

Fresno State got baskets from guard Donavan Yap (1 of 4), Destin Whitaker (1 of 4) and Braxton Meah (1 of 1). It was Yap’s had one field goal in three games coming in, going 1 of 9. Whitaker had one field goal in six games, going 1 of 4. Meah had one field goal in six games, going 1 of 2. …

The Bulldogs are now 0-4 in Quadrant 1 games. They were No. 57 in the NCAA NET ratings going in, one of two teams in that Top 57 without a Quad 1 win. The other was No. 44 Virginia Tech. …

Fresno State had actually shot the ball well from three in its past four road games, going a combined 33 of 71 (46.5% in games at UNLV, at Nevada, at New Mexico and at San Jose State. Those teams are seventh, 10th, sixth and 11th in the conference in opponent’s 3-point field goal percentage, but the Rams are only eighth. …

Up next: Fresno State vs. UNLV

When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Save Mart Center

TV: CBS Sports Network

• Find it fast: AT&T Uverse (643, 1643), Comcast (418, 732), DirecTV (221), Dish Network (158).
  
  

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 (16-8, 6-5 in the MW), UNLV (14-10, 6-5).

The coaches: Justin Hutson (62-45 fourth season); Kevin Kruger (14-10 first season)

The Rebel: UNLV lost 69-63 at Boise State on Friday, with a huge disparity in foul shots. The Broncos were 23 of 29 at the free throw line, the Rebels 4 of 7. UNLV had won three of four before that game. Bryce Hamilton hit 12 of 24 shots in scoring 32 points for the Rebels and has scored 30 or more points in five of the past eight games with a high of 45 in a win at Colorado State. He also had 33 in a loss at Utah State, 32 in a loss at Air Force and 30 in a win over San Jose State. Fresno State won at UNLV 73-68 on Jan. 14, with Orlando Robinson leading the way with 24 points and 11 rebounds. The Bulldogs’ starting five in that game hit a combined 23 of 42 shots (54.8%).

This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 10:40 PM.