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.
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