Fresno State wins Basketball Classic opener, is only Mountain West team still playing

Mindset can matter, because this is not the NCAA Tournament or the NIT or even the CBI. It’s The Basketball Classic, which was supposed to include 32 teams but could find only 21 participants willing to extend their seasons.

But Fresno State was one and the Bulldogs set aside any disappointment to not be playing on a bigger stage and under brighter lights at this point and took a different tack in dispatching Eastern Washington 83-74 on Thursday at the Save Mart Center, posting a 20th win of the season.

They pretty much broke it down to the bottom line: “I just want to win, wherever we play,” said guard Anthony Holland, when asked about a next-round opponent.

The Bulldogs (20-13) did win, with some ease, and will play their next tournament game on Wednesday at the Save Mart Center against Youngstown State of Ohio. The second-round game tips off at 7 p.m.

They also are the only Mountain West Conference team still playing after Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Wyoming lost opening games in the NCAA Tournament and Utah State lost its first game in the NIT.

Fresno State going forward will be without guard Junior Ballard, who had a lower leg surgery before the season, was limited to 23 games and has been shut down for the remainder of the year, as long as the Bulldogs can make it last. Jordan Campbell also is playing through an injury. That forced coach Justin Hutson to play deeper into a bench that struggled to produce through the regular season against an opponent that pushes tempo and is not shy about firing away from the 3-point line, averaging 25.1 per game.

“They wanted us to shoot fast, and they wanted to shoot fast, so they were going to give some resistance on Orlando (Robinson), but they weren’t going to give a lot of resistance everywhere else to try to bait you into shooting fast,” Hutson said. “That’s a thin line. We want to be aggressive and shoot the ones that are open, but I thought we took some quick ones early that we didn’t need to. We could have got it inside either by throwing it inside or driving it, but I thought we adjusted well.”

Robinson had a usage rate in the high 40s in the Bulldogs’ final regular-season game and in their two Mountain West Tournament games, a win over San Jose State and a quarterfinal loss to San Diego State. It was just 23.8 against the Eagles, and the 7-foot junior finished with 13 points, four rebounds and five assists.

Bulldogs bench produces 24 points

But Holland hit four shots from the 3-point line and led the Bulldogs in scoring with 18 points and forward Leo Colimerio was much more active at the offensive end, taking a season-high 10 shots in scoring a career-high 17 points and in double-figures for only the fourth time in 32 games this season.

Guard Donavan Yap played 15 minutes for the first time since a 30-point rout at San Jose State on Feb. 1, matching a season-high with seven points. Destin Whitaker played 11 minutes, the most he had logged in a game since he had 23 in a Feb. 11 loss at Colorado State, and he had played in only four of eight games since then.

The wildly-inconsistent Deon Stroud played a season-high 28 minutes, matching a season-high with 14 points, though he did also have three turnovers.

“I thought he played under control for the most part, except for that lob from half court and that last one there,” Hutson said. “If he can continue to play good decision-making basketball he can help us.”

But the Bulldogs had plenty, their lead hitting 18 points at its highest, even though Eastern Washington was baiting them to let fly from the 3-point line and they did.

The 3-point shot is not an area Fresno State excels – it is last in the Mountain West at 32.4%, and with Holland going 4 of 8 still was only 7 of 26 (26.0%). But the Bulldogs got a lead with 6:47 to go in the first half and never let it go, with the Eagles hitting four of their final 17 shots and watching a 22-14 lead turn into a 47-33 halftime deficit.

Bulldogs notes

The Fresno State bench produced 24 points in the victory. Counting backward, the Bulldogs’ bench scoring: 4 points against San Diego State and eight against San Jose State at the Mountain West Tournament, four at Wyoming to end the regular season and 10 at San Diego State. …

The 83 points were one off the Bulldogs’ season high set in an 84-60 victory over Long Island on Nov. 12. …

Stroud hit 5 of 9 shots in scoring his 14 points and had the highest plus/minus on the team at plus-17. He obviously has not been that efficient to this point, hitting only 30.7% of his shots including 17.9% at the 3-point line. Despite those shooting percentages, Stroud had the Bulldogs’ second highest usage rate to Robinson among the Bulldogs who played in 10 or more games.

This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 11:47 PM.