The Fresno State men’s basketball team takes the win over Air Force on Saturday at the Save Mart Center, 71-59.

The ‘Dogs are now 1-1 in Mountain West play and 11-4 overall.

“We aren’t where we need to be at the end of the year, in terms of ball movement and player movement, but as we get Jaron [Hopkins] back up speed the better we’ll do. We did a better job on offense tonight, but we have work to do. What excites me most about this team is that we haven’t even begun to reach our potential, we have a long way to go,” head coach Rodney Terry said.

As the ‘Dogs jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, the Falcons the were quick to answer back for the lead, 15-11.

Fresno State then went on a 14-0 run after back-to-back 3-pointers from junior Deshon Taylor to put them ahead 29-17.

The guard recorded a game-high of 18 points with four rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal.

Fresno State took the half, 31-24.

Senior Ray Bowles Jr. also led the night with sixteen points, six rebounds and 4 assists. This is the guard’s tenth time scoring in double-figures this season.

“I feel more like myself on the court now. I felt like I needed to come out and be aggressive on the court tonight for the team to be successful. I wanted to play with urgency on defense, because defense leads into being successful on offense. That’s how we got our momentum on offense, we played good defense,” Bowles said.

Fresno State has now outrebounded its opponent 13 of 15 games this season.

Guard Jahmel Taylor also collected five rebounds, two assists and 1 steal while scoring in double-figures for the eleventh time this season with 10 points.

The Bulldogs limited the Falcons to 37.8 percent from the field as well as 35.3 percent behind the arc. The Falcons were led by forward Ryan Swan who scored a team-high of 13 points while going 5-5 in free throws.

In the end, the ‘Dogs secured their first Mountain West win of the season, 71-59.

The ‘Dogs will travel to play Utah State on Dec. 3 and then at Colorado State on Dec. 6.