'Dogs win in OT this time

Staff Reports

Basketball teams need to sub so their shooters can be fresh when it counts, right?

Tell it to Marcus West and Shantay Legans. West played 49 minutes in three days, Legans played 47 after two straight double-overtime road games, the second a 75-74 victory over Southern Methodist Saturday night in Dallas. Each hit big shots down the stretch.

Legans swished a 15-foot leaner after pump-faking SMU’s Bryan Hopkins with 5.1 seconds left in double overtime.

Hopkins then pushed the ball down the court and found a wide-open Kris Lowe on the baseline. Lowe got the shot off in time, but not through the basket.

West had a team record with nine 3s among his career-high and game-high 32 points. Legans scored 21.

Legans’ assist on a Chris Adams layup with 2.1 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 58. The game went into overtime after SMU’s Patrick Simpson missed an open 3.

The Bulldogs were up by two in the first overtime after Legans made a jumper with 35 seconds left, but Lowe made two free throws after a foul by Butler to send the game into the second overtime.

It was the second time in three days a depleted Fresno State team was pushed to double overtime. The Bulldogs dropped an 80-75 decision to Louisiana Tech on Thursday night in Ruston, La.

Fresno State was without senior forwards Renaldo Major and Jonathan Woods for the second-consecutive game. Both are serving suspensions for breaking unspecified team rules. The Fresno Bee reported Major’s suspension was due to failure of a drug test.

The team was also without its leading scorer, sophomore guard Terry Pettis.

Pettis was suspended for the remainder of the season after the Bulldogs’ loss to Louisiana Tech, in which he only played 14 minutes and was benched the entire second half.

Pettis was not with the team in Dallas, and coach Ray Lopes said in a press release, “Our focus now is on the rest of the season with the group that we have.”