The Fresno State men’s basketball team led the University of California, San Diego Tritons by five points with less than five minutes to play, but surrendered an 8-0 run to fall 78-73 at home Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs trailed by as much as 13, but a 23-5 second-half run gave the Bulldogs a chance to beat last year’s 12 seed in the south bracket of the NCAA Tournament. However, an 8-0 run from the Tritons in the final three minutes dropped the Bulldogs to 2-2 on the season.
“I was proud in the second half making that run, but if you’re gonna be good, you gotta know how to finish a run,” said head coach Vance Walberg. “We didn’t end up finishing that run.”
While the Bulldogs have two blowout wins on the season, their two losses have shown the Bulldogs struggle to finish out close games. On Nov. 5 against the University of South Carolina Upstate, the Bulldogs couldn’t hold onto their 12-point lead and lost to the Spartans by one.
Against the Tritons, the Bulldogs had chances to extend their five-point lead during a Tritons shooting drought late in the second half. While the Tritons went scoreless for over two minutes, including missing five straight 3-pointers, the Bulldogs missed back-to-back layups and failed to grow their late lead.
The Bulldogs missed 12 layups on the night.
“Go back to when we lost last week,” Walberg said. “Go back to the missed layups we had then. I think two of them were breakaways. It’s part of the game. Hopefully, one of these days, that stuff gets out of our system.”
Bulldogs’ junior forward Jac Mani had a breakout game against the Tritons. He scored 21 points while shooting 8-for-9 from the floor and grabbing seven rebounds.
Mani capped off the Bulldogs’ second-half run to give them a 62-57 lead with nine minutes left in the second half. It was the first Bulldogs’ lead since there were 10 minutes left in the first half.
“Jac gave us a chance,” Walberg said. “He kept us in that game.”
A Tritons’ 22-9 run to close the first half put the Bulldogs in a 42-30 halftime hole.
Defensive lapses hurt the Bulldogs during the Tritons’ run, and Walberg was critical of his team not guarding the Tritons’ shooters tightly enough at the 3-point line.
The Tritons made 12 3-pointers compared to the Bulldogs’ seven on Wednesday night.
“We’re a type of team where we’re not good enough to take a play off here and a play off there,” Walberg said. “It’s two points here, two points there, and those are the things we gotta be able to clean up.”
The Bulldogs continue their homestand on Nov. 15 against Utah Valley University, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
