Fresno State men’s basketball: Bulldogs hand San Diego State first MW loss

Fresno State pulled off one of the more improbable victories in the Mountain West this season, playing down two starters and losing a third to injury early in the second half when up against San Diego State, which is not an enviable position. The Aztecs had come in undefeated though their 11 conference games and had developed an uncanny knack at pulling out victories – of those 11 wins, two were in overtime and four others came by three points or less.

But the Bulldogs, despite getting out-shot and out-rebounded at both ends of the floor, still found ways to pull out a 58-57 victory over the Aztecs on Wednesday at the Save Mart Center, bearing little resemblance to the team that had played poorly, without much punch and lost at San Jose State just one week ago.

“I just said to our guys, let’s try to out-work these guys and let’s just compete as hard as we can compete right now,” coach Rodney Terry said.

“This is a hard team to play against. Offensively, if you don’t get some easy baskets in transition and you have to go against these guys 5-on-5, man, that’s a hard thing to do. They’re not giving you a lot of good looks. They create a lot of problems for you.”

Fresno State (16-8, 7-4 in the MW) had plenty going in. The Bulldogs were without Karachi Edo (wrist) and without Torren Jones (medical issue), who had 15 points and 14 rebounds and 13 points and six rebounds in an overtime loss to the Aztecs in San Diego last month.

When Paul Watson went down with a calf injury at the 16:36 mark in the second half in an awkward collision with teammate Cullen Russo in pursuit of a loose ball, the Bulldogs appeared to be in deep. They were down nine, about to go down 11. But right there is where it started to turn back, a 2-3 zone spurring a run.

San Diego State (18-7, 11-1) made just one basket over the next 4:27.

The Bulldogs continued to work back, though nothing came easily for them at the offensive end. The Bulldogs hit just 35.2 percent of their shots in the game and, incredibly, 30.8 percent in the second half when erasing that 11-point deficit.

Marvelle Harris led them with 20 points, hitting 7 of 17 shots. Russo had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Julien Lewis had 12 points. But the Bulldogs also got 19 big minutes from freshman walk-on Sam Bittner, 16 solid defensive minutes in the second half from Lionel Ellison.

“Coach came in and our whole emphasis on this game was we have enough dogs in the kennel,” Harris said. “When a player goes down, we always have someone ready to step up. Cullen did a great job on the boards. We had Sam. He came in and played major minutes and for his first game to be San Diego State, he did a great job. I think everybody stepped up tot he challenge.”

With Edo and Jones out and Watson going down with two points and one rebound in 16 minutes, the production from Russo and minutes from Bittner no doubt loomed large in the victory.

“You know you have to step up with two guys bring out and not having as much depth as we’re used to,” Russo said. “They told me, you have to step up big getting on the boards. That was the biggest thing and I tried to do as much as I could.”

That included a three-pointer to tie the score at 50 with 6:44 remaining – it was the second of two in the game for the junior forward, who had made only eight this season and hit only 25.8 percent of his 31 attempts.

Lewis followed that with another three-pointer and while the Aztecs tied the score twice, the Bulldogs were never behind the rest of the way.

Two free throws by Russo put Fresno State up 56-54 with 1:54 remaining and in those final seconds it was the Bulldogs who made the plays.

The Aztecs came down and Jeremy Hemsley missed a jumper. Dakarai Allen pulled the offensive rebound, but they ended up turning it over on an offensive foul by Skylar Spencer. Harris drove hard to the basket and was fouled, making both free throws to put the Bulldogs up four at 58-54.

San Diego State missed again and got another offensive rebound and a second chance – the Aztecs had 10 offensive rebounds but could turn them into only six points. Zylan Cheatham, who grabbed that rebound, was fouled and made one of two foul shots.

Up three, Lewis missed a jumper and fouled Cheatham going after the rebound. One free throw went down, then the next. One-point game. The Bulldogs had been able to get to the rim down the stretch, but with 11 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down, Harris missed a shot from the three-point line.

The Aztecs’ Cheatham got the rebound, the Aztecs got a timeout. But their final shot, a jumper by Trey Kell was off and the Bulldogs emerged tied for second place in the conference with New Mexico.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Fresno State men’s basketball: Bulldogs hand San Diego State first MW loss."