Men's team drops to third-place tie in WAC

Staff Report / The Collegian

Fresno State shot better than 50 percent from the floor but still lost to second-place Texas-El Paso 93-80 on Thursday night.

UTEP (19-5, 9-3 Western Athletic Conference) has not lost a conference home game this season and is 29-2 over the past two seasons at the Don Haskins Center.

Fresno State (13-8, 7-5) shot nearly 52 percent and had four players score in double figures. The Miners outdid the Bulldogs in both areas — shooting almost 57 percent with five players scoring in double figures.

Fresno State’s Ja’Vance Coleman led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 4 of 8 on 3-pointers. Mustafa Al-Sayyad added 19 points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs.

Filiberto Rivera paced the Miners with 19 points and 12 assists. He was 3 of 5 on 3s.

In the teams’ first meeting this season, Coleman hit a 30-foot buzzer-beater to claim a 66-63 win for the Bulldogs at the Save Mart Center.

Not so this time around, as John Tofi added 18, Giovanni St. Amant 15 and Jason Williams and Omar Thomas 14 apiece for UTEP.

The loss drops the Bulldogs into a third-place tie with Louisiana Tech.

UTEP’s 93 points scored was the most by a Fresno State opponent in regulation since Ray Lopes took over in 2003.

The Miners led 47-38 at halftime, but Fresno State cut the lead to 63-59 with 12 minutes to go. UTEP pulled away again, leading by as many as 18 points in the second half.

Fresno State’s Hector Hernandez had a career-high 11 points, hitting 3 of 7 3-pointers. The freshman from Chihuahua, Mexico, which is about three hours from El Paso, played in front of family and friends on Thursday night.

Freshman Chris Berry added 10 points for Fresno State.

The Bulldogs close the road trip with a game at Boise State on Saturday at 1 p.m. Fresno State won its first meeting with the Broncos 89-82.