The Fresno State men’s basketball team returned to the Save Mart Center after a month-long hiatus on Dec. 30.
After being taken down by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Bulldogs’ Mountain West opener, the ‘Dogs couldn’t bounce back against the Utah State Aggies, losing 72-63 on Tuesday night.
Both squads traded blows in the early part of the game before the Aggies’ offense started to warm up.
After getting within five of the Aggies with two minutes to go in the opening half, the Bulldog offense grew stale, going scoreless to end the half.
The ‘Dogs spent the rest of the night playing from behind but were able to push the Aggies until the last minute of the game. The Bulldogs were forced to put the Aggies on the free throw line who took advantage of their lead and extended it when at the charity stripe.
Despite the loss, Head Coach Vance Walberg praised his team for staying in the game.
“I thought the kids fought,” Walberg said. “I thought they competed, they gave themselves a chance.”
The Bulldog defense was able to limit the second-best scoring offense in the conference thanks to 20 forced turnovers.
Three different Bulldogs ended the game with three steals.
While the defense was able to show up, the offense struggled to go on any sort of run.
Guards Zaon Collins and Cameron Faas combined for seven points on 2-of-15 shooting.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Zaon, ball all the time and so forth,” Walberg said. “I got to find a way, maybe to take some of that pressure off.”
The ‘Dogs did get a spark from Bastien Rieber who added 12 points and four rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench.
While the Bulldogs have some positives to take away from Tuesday’s game, Walberg is aware of a recurring theme through the team’s first two conference games – turnovers.
“Our live ball turnovers have just killed us,” Walberg said.
Against UNLV and Utah State, the Bulldogs turned the ball over a combined 30 times.
“[At] UNLV, we’re up four, we go back-to-back, you know, live ball turnovers [causing] lay up, lay up,” Walberg said. “Tonight, the same thing. We just got to be able to handle the ball a lot better.”
Walberg and the ‘Dogs will look to bounce back and get their first conference win of the season against the Nevada Wolf Pack on Jan. 3. Tip off is set for 4 p.m.
