Fresno State, for one night at least, puts a lot of pieces together in beating Air Force

Fresno State played one of those “what could have been” games on Tuesday, a 74-69 victory at Air Force in which it was able to press and defend and score off its defense, to get into the paint, to hit its foul shots.

The Bulldogs (10-17, 6-10 in the Mountain West), coming off a loss to Colorado State in which it blew a 5-point lead with just 39 seconds to go, did all of the above in snapping a three-game losing streak. They had 12 steals, the most in a game since a 2019 victory over the Falcons, and scored 31 points off 21 Air Force turnovers. They scored 52 points in the paint, with an astounding 20 of 28 made baskets coming at the rim on layups and dunks. They got to the line as many times as they had in the past two games combined, and hit 16 of 17 free throws.

“Feels great,” coach Justin Hutson said on his postgame radio show. “You know, you’re always happy for the guys first, them coming together and making some big plays down the stretch. They made some big plays down the stretch and sometimes it comes down to that.”

Center Eduardo Andre was a big presence there, and everywhere. Andre scored 26 points, hitting 10 of 14 shots including all six of his foul shots with seven rebounds, three steals, two assists and one blocked shot.

Point guard Isaiah Hill, who missed shoot-around Tuesday morning and was questionable to play due to illness, scored 22 points and had eight assists with no turnovers and three steals.

“Basically last night I had a little stomach bug and I didn’t get too much sleep,” Hill said. “I was up throwing up at the toilet and I just didn’t get too much sleep so I didn’t feel good to go to shoot around. I slept all day, got good rest, but I came to play and so did my teammates.”

A big thing, also, was the 3-point line, where the Bulldogs attempted just 13 shots. Fresno State, 344th of 352 in the nation in 3-point percentage, had attempted an average of 27 its past three games and hit just 30%.

But Air Force wasn’t doubling Andre despite not having a credible matchup on the 6-foot-11 center, and obviously had difficulty against the Bulldogs’ defensive pressure.

“We knew we were going to go to him early,” Hutson said. “They don’t double team and stuff like that. They don’t do some of that stuff. I know some of those fans out there want us to go to him some other times. We go to him when we know he’s going to be successful. That’s the bottom line.

“As he stays longer, then he can be successful handling double teams or handling fronts. But we knew he had a chance to be successful tonight so we were going to go to him all night.”

BULLDOGS NOTES

Air Force beat Fresno State 51-48 on Jan. 14 at the Save Mart Center. Andre stepped up with three starters out and got 14 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots.

The Bulldogs rose to seventh in the Mountain West standings while Air Force (14-15, 5-11) fell to ninth.

NEXT FOR FRESNO STATE

Friday vs. Nevada, 8 p.m. at the Save Mart Center (FS1)

This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 5:30 AM.