Up by one and just 5.9 seconds away from clinching its first Western Athletic Conference road win, the Fresno State men’s basketball fell victim to a disputed jump ball call that cost them the game.
The call gave Louisiana Tech possession with 4.4 seconds left in the game, enough time for Brandon Gibson to lay up a buzzer beater, downing Fresno State 59-58.
“It’s a tough break,” said head coach Rodney Terry. “It’s a hard loss, it is. Our guys fought back and put themselves in position to leave with a great taste in their mouths. It’s unfortunate.”
Fresno State trailed 29-21 at halftime before junior Kevin Olekaibe and senior Jonathan Wills sparked a second-half comeback that began with a 9-0 scoring run for the ‘Dogs.
It wasn’t over from there for the ‘Dogs, who were forced to play catch up in the second half after a slow start in the first. In the second half, Fresno State shot 46.4 percent from the field, made a near-perfect 10-of-11 free throws, while outrebounding La. Tech 15-13. Fresno State also outscored Louisiana Tech 22-12 in the paint.
It was Olekaibe who sank two free throws to put the ‘Dogs up 58-57 with 17 seconds left, their first lead since just after halftime. But after Louisiana Tech’s Kenyon McNeaill missed the go-ahead layup with five seconds remaining, the ball was tipped out of bounds by a Fresno State player, giving McNeaill’s squad new life. Gibson used the remaining five seconds to wiggle his way into scoring position for a game-winning floater in the lane, sinking Fresno State to 1-5 in conference play.
Despite the disappointing narrow loss on the road, Fresno State’s fourth straight road loss, Terry remained optimistic.
“Oh no question about it,” Terry said. “But I tell our guys we have to learn from these situations.”
Olekaibe led all scorers with 20 points while playing all 40 minutes. Garrett Johnson tacked on 11 off the bench on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. Jerry Brown, who has come on hot as of late, struggled to 2-of-11 shooting en route to just six points.
Defensively, the 59 points Fresno State surrendered were the lowest total this season against a conference opponent, a selling point for Terry and company despite dropping to seventh in the Western Athletic Conference standings.
“A lot of positives came out of tonight’s game, especially in the second-half,” Terry said.
Fresno State will have Friday off before traveling to New Mexico State, which sits second in the WAC only behind Nevada. Terry said Thursday’s loss would serve as a lesson to how his team approaches the remaining nine games on the regular-season schedule.
“We can’t sit here and feel sorry for ourselves,” Terry said. “We have to pick ourselves up. We just have to back bounce. It’s a life lesson for us.”