Santa Clara Claws 'Dogs

Bulldogs set back on the road after 69-64 loss to santa Clara in front of crowd of 1,331

By Eddie Hughes

SANTA CLARA—For everything Fresno State did Saturday night, Santa Clara had an answer.

The Bulldogs’ offense awakened in the second half, but Santa Clara stepped up to the challenge to pull out a 69-64 victory in front of 1,331 fans at the Leavey Center.

The Broncos (2-2) needed a 3-point bank-shot from point guard Kyle Bailey with 24 seconds remaining to end the hopes of the Bulldogs (0-2). Following a Santa Clara timeout, Bailey set up and launched a 3 with Fresno State’s Renaldo Major hovering in front of him to put the Broncos ahead 67-61.

“ Kyle called bank by the way,” Santa Clara sophomore Travis Niesen said.

Niesen stole the ball from Fresno State’s Francis Koffi with one minute, 35 seconds to go and the Bulldogs down by five.

After a Bailey free throw, Bulldogs guard Marcus West cut the deficit to four with a 3 from NBA range. Fresno State point guard Shantay Legans took a 3 with eight seconds left, but missed, putting the game out of reach. Another Bailey free throw gave Santa Clara its final point and the win.

Statistically, Fresno State did just fine. After shooting 30.8 percent in the first half, the Bulldogs hit 52 percent of their second-half shots. Five Bulldogs scored in double figures, led by Legans’ 12 points. And center Mustafa Al-Sayyad recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

“ Obviously, nobody played well enough,” Bulldogs coach Ray Lopes said, “because we lost.”

Bailey led Santa Clara with 21 points—18 of which came in the second half. Bailey was 3 of 10 on 3s and guard Ethan Rohde was 4 of 9 from 3-point range.

While the stat sheet looked to be in Fresno State’s favor, Lopes attributed the loss to team toughness.

“ Their toughness was a lot better than ours tonight,” Lopes said.

Santa Clara outrebounded the Bulldogs 33-32.

“ We didn’t play with toughness or rebound tonight like we should have,” Legans said.

Legans clutched his left knee late in the first half while in his defensive stance and favored the knee the rest of the game.

The injury isn’t expected to cause Legans to miss any action according to Jake Bragonier, assistant director of media relations for Fresno State.

Legans had seven assists on the night—three more than the Bulldogs total of four in the opener at Oregon—in 29 minutes.

The Bulldogs play their first regular-season game in the Save Mart Center Friday when they host Arkansas-Monticello in the McCaffrey Classic.