LAS VEGAS–The Fresno State men’s basketball team’s Mountain West (MW) season came to an end Thursday night with a 93-77 loss to the No. 2-seeded New Mexico Lobos (25-6, 15-3 MW) in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Bulldogs finish with a 17-16 record overall.
“We played one of the better teams in the country today,” Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry said. “The way they played today in terms of the way they came out with the mindset to start the ballgame, they got off to a really good start.”
The Lobos were led by their dominant forward-center duo in Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk. Coming into the game, Bairstow lead the league with 20.3 points per game (ppg).
The duo tallied a game-high 21 points apiece.
The Lobos’ post presence gave Fresno State fits all night. The ‘Dogs’ inability to match Bairstow and Kirk in the paint hurt them.
“When they’re playing at that level between the two big guys inside,” Terry said, “and you throw [New Mexico guard] Kendall Williams is in there who has been one of the better players in our league — Player of the Year at one point in his career — they’re a hard team to beat.”
Williams bottled Fresno State’s leading scorer, Tyler Johnson, up the whole night. Johnson only shot 1for 7 from the field and totaled 2 points.
“Teams are going to game plan,” Terry said. “They have all season long [to game plan] for [Johnson]. He obviously made some big shots for us a night ago.
“Guys are going to come in and guard him extremely well.”
The Thomas & Mack Center was rocking with many New Mexico fans that traveled to Las Vegas to cheer on the defending Mountain West Champions. The fan base was so large that it was seemingly a home game for the Lobos.
The ‘Dogs, however, stayed focused and didn’t see the noisy environment as a disadvantage. Fresno State senior guard Allen Huddleston, who led the team with 18 points, didn’t use it as en excuse for the loss and said it wasn’t a distraction at all.
“We’re used to that,” Huddleston said. “I don’t think that had any effect on the game at all. We played as hard as we could. We just didn’t come out on the winning side of the game.”
New Mexico, the No. 20 team in the country, won the Mountain West crown a year ago and look to repeat. They will continue their quest for back-to-back conference titles on Friday night.
As for Fresno State, its season may not be over. There is still the possibility of the team continuing its season and playing in the College Basketball Invitational or the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournaments.
“We’re very excited about that,” Huddleston said. “If granted the opportunity, I think we should definitely take that offer and continue to play.
“It’s good for growth for the program, for this team, and the guys that will be returning to get a chance to experience postseason play and get a chance to know what it’s all about.”
