After a historic win against San Jose State with Fresno State’s largest margin of victory of 30 points in a Mountain West road game, the Bulldogs were back in the Save Mart Center on Friday night to take on the Nevada Wolf Pack.
Fresno State lost the previous meeting in Reno, making this a revenge game for Fresno State, and they were up to the challenge defeating Nevada easily 73-56.
The ‘Dogs got off to a hot start with Orlando Robinson scoring a quick jumper and a layup. Then Anthony Holland hit a 3-pointer to put the Bulldogs up 8-4 with 17 minutes left in the first half.
In a tight first half that saw the teams tied twice, the Bulldogs were able to pull out to a 9-point lead with the score 33-24 heading into halftime.
Holland led the way in the first half with a stat line that you would usually see at the end of a game. He scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds shooting 1-of-3 from beyond the arc and 5-of-8 from the floor.
Senior Junior Ballard chipped in 8 points, shooting 3-of-7 overall and 2-of-5 from the 3-point line in the first half as well.
Coach Hutson mentioned how Ballard is coming back from an injury that required surgery and is slowly starting to look healthy again.
“Junior had an operation, you know, a little too late for my liking. Otherwise he would’ve been back earlier, but he had an operation on the shin and it just started giving him problems,” Hutson said.
“He came back and he was healthy but then he started having some shin splints and some different troubles there, and his back started hurting so he had to step back a little bit and he’s been feeling healthy. As long as he can keep playing it easy and get better on the defensive end he’ll give us a punch.”
Robinson had an abnormally quiet first half by his standards, only scoring 6 points and pulling down three boards, shooting 2-of-4 from the field and 1-of-2 from 3.
Redshirt Sophomore Will Baker was the leading scorer for the Wolfpack in the first half, scoring 10 points, adding two rebounds and a block.
Fresno State shot an abysmal 25% from beyond the arc in the first half hitting just 4-of-16.
Head coach Justin Hutson spoke about what adjustments were made from the first half to the second half with the Bulldog’s confidence toward shooting.
“We thought most of our shots were good in the first half. There were a few that we thought were quick, you know, and you got to credit Nevada’s defense for that, they are athletic out there,” Hutson said. “The second half we continued to share it and they believed in themselves to step up and make shots.”
The ‘Dogs stepped up and made shots in the second half, shooting 75% from the 3-point line going 6-of-8 from out there in the second half.
Robinson kicked off the second half with a dunk, bringing the crowd to its feet in the Save Mart Center.
Behind great scoring efforts from Holland, Robinson and Isaiah Hill, the Bulldogs were able to pull away at the end of the game taking their revenge on the Wolf Pack with the 17-point victory.
Holland had a double-double on the night with a game-high 21 points, shooting 3-of-6 from downtown and an efficient 7-of-12 from the field while also grabbing 10 rebounds.
“I just try to make the best of my opportunities like always and when I was open, I shot the ball to make it and it was going in tonight,” Holland said.
Robinson improved upon his first-half scoring line by scoring 15 points for the game, shooting 6-of-16 from the floor and 1-of-3 from beyond the arc, along with pulling down six rebounds and dishing three assists.
Hill contributed 14 points going 4-of-7 from the field and 2-of-5 from the 3-point line. Hill was also the team leader in assists on the night dishing out six assists and swiping three steals as well.
Desmond Cambridge Jr. had a double-double with a team-high 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as well in the loss for the Wolfpack.
Overall, the Bulldogs shot 25-of-54 shooting 46% from the field and were 42% from beyond the arc shooting 10-of-24 in the win.
The Bulldogs look to get another win at home in the Save Mart Center on Sunday against a second place Wyoming (18-3, 7-1 MW) squad. Tipoff against the Cowboys is slated for 4 p.m.
