After a tough loss to Washington State only three days ago, Fresno State dropped another single-digit game to Colorado, losing 50-43 Wednesday night at the Save Mart Center.
The Bulldogs were led by guards Allen Huddleston and Kevin Foster and center Robert Upshaw, as the ’Dogs play seemed sloppy all night. Fresno State had multiple turnovers and fouls that led to easy buckets for Colorado, and the Buffaloes were able to build a 10-point lead by halftime.
“We knew we had a really good opponent coming in,” Bulldogs coach Rodney Terry said. “And we needed to do all those small details that we needed to do in order to come out with a victory tonight.”
The 17 points that the Bulldogs were able to score in the first half marked a season-low, as Fresno State’s leading scoring Foster finished with eight points. The 43 points scored also marked a season-low for the Bulldogs.
Beginning the second half, Fresno State was able to go on a 13-2 run to take the lead over the Buffaloes. Sparked by the effort of Upshaw and forward Jerry Brown, the Bulldogs (5-5) went up 32-30 but weren’t able to hold on to their lead as Colorado pulled ahead again.
“Jerry has done a great job over the last three, four games,” Terry said. “He answers the bell in terms of having energy from the start and setting the tone. And he did that for us again in the second half.”
Forward Andre Roberson led Colorado with 17 points and 20 rebounds in 38 minutes of play. Roberson’s play was complemented by guard Askia Booker’s 14 points. Colorado (8-2) forward Josh Scott also scored 11 points.
“I’ll be honest with you, (Robinson’s) one of the better rebounders in the country. And we knew that coming in,” Terry said. “We spent a couple of days in preparation for a guy like that.
“His rebounds are a difference-maker in games. We knew that going in, and we worked on that. But we made him like a lottery pick in terms of what he was doing.”
Huddleston finished second on the team in scoring with eight points and collected two steals. Foster had a strong overall game, contributing eight points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes of play. Foster was able to get back on track after riding an early season slump coming off the bench.
“Kevin was good tonight,” Terry said. “But again, I think it carried over from practice. He had two of his better practices on the year, and I thought he had unbelievable energy and intensity in his practice preparation over the last two days.
“I thought tonight was a direct result of how he did those things this week.”
Fresno State returns to action against UC Irvine at the Save Mart Center this Saturday. With another game at home, the Bulldogs will continue to try to regain momentum, as they will look to feed off the energy of the home crowd.
After facing two Pac-12 teams, Fresno State will move onto a Big West Conference opponent as it will play five of its next nine games at home over the winter break.
“We just have to come out with intensity,” Brown said. “I mean UC Irvine is a great team and we respect every team. But we just have to come out with extreme intensity and bounce back.”