Jake Heidbreder’s buzzer-beater jump shot capped off the Bulldogs’ 98-96 comeback win over the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels.
The Bulldogs trailed by five with just 6.8 seconds remaining. They would score seven unanswered points in those final seconds to finish off the Rebels at home.
“Forty-eight years of doing this, I’ve never seen that,” said Bulldogs’ Head Coach Vance Walberg. “You guys have been here many times where I told you about the basketball gods, and I believe if you keep working hard, good things can happen. I think they really helped us today.”
While Heidbreder had a game-high 29 points, including the game-winning shot, it was the Bulldogs’ defense, David Douglas Jr.’s game-tying 3-pointer and a cross-court turnover by the Rebels that gave the Bulldogs that chance to win with the final shot.
With the game tied at 96, the Rebels inbounded the ball by throwing a full-court pass. However, the ball bounced out of bounds without anyone touching it, and the Bulldogs got to inbound the ball under their own basket with 1.5 seconds left.
“A game like that, you not only gotta be good, but you gotta be lucky,” Walberg said. “I’ll take it. We’ve been on the backside for many of these games, my two years here, where we gave away a lot of games. So it’s nice to kind of steal a game.”
Fouls were plentiful during Tuesday night’s contest as the two teams combined for 63 fouls, six technical fouls and three flagrant fouls. In total, seven players between the two sides fouled out, including four players from the Rebels’ starting lineup.
The Rebels came out playing a physical brand of basketball, resulting in numerous Bulldogs getting banged up throughout the game. Most notably, late in the second half, Heidbreder took an elbow to the face and was bleeding at times during the game’s final few minutes.
“Everybody beats each other up,” Walberg said of basketball in the Mountain West Conference.
The Bulldogs entered the halftime break trailing just 50-49 thanks to a Gasper Kocevar layup to end the first half. However, their slow start in the second half allowed for the Rebels to eventually extend their lead to a game-high 13 points on the back of a 14-2 run.
Late in the second half, the Bulldogs responded with a run of their own. They outscored the Rebels 18-7 over the final 90 seconds to complete the comeback.
Walberg said he hopes this win can kickstart momentum for the team as they head to Reno on Feb. 7 to take on the University of Nevada, Reno Wolf Pack. Walberg added that the last time the two teams squared off, the Bulldogs “gave that Nevada game away.”
“They’re a very good team, especially at their place,” Walberg said. “I believe if we do things right, we’ll give ourselves a chance again.”
The win over the Rebels gets the Bulldogs back to .500 on the season at 11-11. Fresno State sits at 5-6 in conference play and seventh in the Mountain West standings.
