After dropping a close game against Boise State on Jan. 23, the Fresno State’s men’s basketball team rebounded with an 84-70 win against Air Force.
Bulldog center Enoch Boakye posted his second double-double of the year with a season-high of 19 points after shooting 9-for-10 and a team-high 10 rebounds for the night.
Point guard Isaiah Hill also recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists.
Boakye had six dunks, including a posterizing slam in the second half.
Bulldog head coach Justin Hutson attributed Boakye’s breakout performance to getting extensive playing time at the collegiate level.
Before transferring to Fresno State, Boakye spent two seasons at Arizona State, where he only played 3.2 minutes per game during the 2022-23 season.
“He hasn’t had a lot of experience on the basketball floor in college basketball,” Hutson said. “This is his first time just being responsible for winning, losing, and having a role.”
Fresno State guard Xavier DuSell had a bounce-back performance after shooting 2-of-11 from the three over the past two games. He connected on five of his 11 three-point attempts in tonight’s performance.
“[I like] that it went in,” Hutson said about DuSell’s performance.
Fresno State and Air Force came into the game struggling, with the Falcons winning only one of its past nine games and the Bulldog winning two of its past nine.
During a strong first half, DuSell surpassed his total number of three-point shots made from the previous two games as he went 3-for-7 from the three-point range.
The first half was close the entire way, as the largest lead of the half was a 5-point lead by the Falcons at 30-25.
Fresno State went on an 11-4 run, puncanted by a Boakye dunk to take a 36-34 lead. Boakye led the team with 12 points on a perfect 6-of-6 from the field to go along with a team-leading 7 rebounds.
With the score tied at 40, Falcon’s guard Ethan Taylor hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take a 3 point lead going into halftime.
Both teams shot over 57% from the field during the first half.
The ‘Dogs got off to a scorching start in the second half, scoring 20 points in the first five minutes to take a 60-49 lead.
DuSell added to his strong first half performance by dropping in two more 3-pointers during the ‘Dogs scoring outburst.
While the Falcons managed to cut the lead to single digits a few times in the second half, the Bulldogs answered every time as they closed out the game with a 14-point victory.
The ‘Dogs improve to 9-11 overall and 2-5 in Mountain West play in Saturday’s win.
Fresno State will travel to Las Vegas to take on the University of Las Vegas, Nevada on Jan. 30 at the Thomas & Mack Center. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.
