The Fresno State Bulldogs capped off the regular season with a historic performance in a 121-81 annihilation of the San Jose State Spartans on Saturday night at the Save Mart Center.
Before the game, the Bulldogs held a ceremony to honor seniors Sam Bittner, Braxton Huggins and Deshon Taylor as they played their final home game at SMC.
As the fans showed love for their seniors, the upperclassmen returned the favor in the form of high octane performances, as both Taylor and Huggins had career nights in scoring, with Taylor scoring a career-high 37 points to go along with 8 assists and Huggins also having a career-high 34 points on 11 of 18 shooting with 10 of his field goals coming from behind the arc.
Saturday night’s game marked the first time in program history that two Fresno State players were able to score 30 or more points on the same night.
The Bulldogs made their money from 3-point land, as they came out of the gates on fire. The ‘Dogs’ first 10 field goals came by way of 3-pointers, with the first nine points being scored by Huggins.
Huggins was white-hot all night. He was able to score easily against an abysmal SJSU defense, coming around every screen set and draining his shots. Huggins put on a historic shooting performance, setting a Fresno State record for most 3-pointers in a game; in the process his 10 3-pointers tied the Mountain West record for most 3-pointers in a game.
SJSU didn’t have any answers for the ‘Dogs, as it was down by as many as 20 points in the first half, and with Huggins scoring 21 of his 34 points in the first half on seven 3-pointers, the Bulldogs were sitting with a comfortable lead at the half, up 59-40.
The second half was more of the same, as the Bulldogs continued their onslaught of the Spartans. The Bulldogs kept piling on from three, and point guard Noah Blackwell joined in on the historic night with 25 points.
Around the two minute mark, head coach Justin Hutson began to call off the ‘Dogs one by one, as he allowed his seniors to substitute out as the SMC crowd gave each player a standing ovation.
For SJSU (4-26, 1-17 MW), the gesture of the ‘Dogs letting up was a bit too late, as they allowed Fresno State to knock down 60 percent from the 3-point line and 23 of 38 shooting, which was a record for the Bulldogs as a team for most 3-pointers in a single game and added to the ‘Dogs’ record total of 321 3-point field goals made on the season.
Fresno State (22-, 13-5 MW) will now be looking toward the 2019 MW Championships in Las Vegas, as it enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will have its first matchup in the quarterfinals on Thursday, thanks to earning a first-round bye against San Diego State University on Wednesday.
