'Dogs send Pack packing
Ryan Tubongbanua / The Collegian
Above: After only recently receiving his name on his home jersey, walk-on Ajay Riding played a career high 17 minutes in addition to some hellacious defense. Below: This emphatic dunk by Quinton Hosely helped seal the Bulldogs' 10-point victory over Nevada in the Save Mart Center. Hosely's 35 points are also a career high and a record by a Bulldog in the SMC.
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By Maggie Thach
The Collegian
Forget that Nevada is the frontrunner for a repeat.
Western Athletic Conference crown and its 6-foot-11 star player Nick Fazekas is the preseason player of
the year. Forget that on top of Fazekas’ 21.2 point-per-game average, his teammates Mo Charlo and Marcelus Kemp are also averaging double figures.
 Fresno State’s Quinton Hosley did as he scored a career-high and a Save Mart Center record 35 points to help the Bulldogs snap a two-game losing streak with an 87-77 win.
The victory puts the Bulldogs (9-6, 2-2) at a .500 record in the WAC at 2-2 with Nevada (13-4, 3-2) just a spot ahead of them.
The attitude was the same among all of Hosley’s teammates as all five starters finished scoring in double figures and scored all but one point of the team total. The second-leading scorer for the Bulldogs came from an unexpected player. Hector Hernandez finished with 18 points, one more than Nevada’s Fazekas.
“No question Quinton and Hector played outstanding,” head coach Steve Cleveland said. “When Hector plays well, we’re a different basketball team. It was a great team effort. It was our best defensive game of the year.”
The defense didn’t look too effective early on as Fazekas scored Nevada’s first six points on lay-ups and jumpers.
But sharp shooting and maintaining post presence with 8 points in the paint sparked a 17-0 run for the Bulldogs in the first half. Hosley alone netted 4 of 6 three-point attempts.
“I felt good shooting the ball,” Hosley said. “The basket looked pretty big. You hit your first shot and you start getting a rhythm. It was one of them nights.”
Hosley’s hot shooting redeemed him for shooting 1-14 from the field at Louisiana Tech on Saturday.
“I sensed in shoot-around the guys were shooting well,” Cleveland. “We can’t beat a team like this without shooting well.”
Fresno State was able to keep its lead around 10 points with the help of Hernandez. He started to make more of an impact in the second half as he opened up scoring on a reverse lay-up on Nick Fazekas.
Hernandez scored seven points in the first three minutes.
“We needed this win really bad,” Hernandez said. “I think the whole team came ready to play.”
With the absence of starter Dwight O’Neil, who is out for academic reasons, players stepped up in different ways than usual. Donovan Morris and Kevin Bell penetrated and scored well-deserved lay-ups while Ja’Vance Coleman, although held under his game average, dished out seven assists.
On the defensive end, the team collected nine steals and had seven blocks, beating the Wolf Pack on the boards with a 37-34 edge.
Hosley put an exclamation point on the win 26 seconds left in the game. On a fast break, Morris delivered a no-look pass and Hosley made the most of it as he flew by Fazekas and dunked the ball. “We just clicked on all cylinders.
We played a complete game,” Cleveland said. “You can’t get real over-confident with a player like Fazekas. When you play a team like this, you never know how it’s going to turn out but we executed a game plan. We really competed and everybody contributed. Tonight we had it.”
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