Bulldogs win big on road

Staff Report / The Collegian

Fresno State broke out of its slump with authority on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs had done quite a bit of losing lately, with three straight defeats and losses in eight of their past 11 games.

But a 74-55 win at San Jose State changed all that. It was the Bulldogs’ biggest margin of victory since a 41-point win over Maryland-Eastern Shore in the season opener and the team’s first double-digit win since Dec. 11 against Sacramento State.

Senior Dreike Bouldin scored a career-high 22 points in the victory and grabbed 10 rebounds for the double-double. Bouldin led the team with three 3-pointers.

As a team, Fresno State tied its season-high with 12 3-pointers.

Ja’Vance Coleman, Dwight O’Neil and Donovan Morris also scored in double figures for Fresno State with 14, 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Senior center Mustafa Al-Sayyad, who has been playing with a leg injury, played just 12 minutes against the Spartans, finishing with two points and five rebounds.

The Spartans were outrebounded 46-30 by Fresno State.

The Bulldogs (15-12, 9-8 Western Athletic Conference) guaranteed at least a fifth-place finish in the WAC with the win and Louisiana Tech’s loss to Rice.

With seven freshmen and eight newcomers in the regular rotation, FresnoState was picked to finish ninth in the conference in the preseason coaches poll and eighth in the media poll.

A win over Hawaii in the regular season finale on Saturday would give the Bulldogs the fourth seed in the WAC tournament.

Fresno State got out to a 26-17 lead to start the game before the Spartans went on a 13-3 run to take a short-lived lead. O’Neil hit a shot in the final seconds of the first half to put the Bulldogs up 31-30 at halftime.

San Jose State (6-21, 3-14) was led by Alex Elam’s 17 points and Marquin Chandler’s 16 points as it lost for the ninth straight time. The Bulldogs haven’t lost to the Spartans since 1999.