Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Sacramento State
Bulldogs Overcome Sluggish Start to Improve to 6-0
12/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 11, 2004
FRESNO, Calif. - Mustafa Al-Sayyad scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the second half as Fresno State overcame a sluggish start to defeat Sacramento State 72-54 on Saturday night.
The Bulldogs (6-0) never led in the first half, but outscored the Hornets (1-6) 49-24 in the second half to remain undefeated in front of an announced crowd of 11,623 at the Save Mart Center.
Senior center Mustafa Al-Sayyad led all scorers with 22 points and had four blocked shots. He also grabbed 11 rebounds to record his third double-double of the season.
Fresno State shot just 29.2 percent in the first half, but improved to 68 percent in the second - finishing the game at 49 percent.
"We didn't play well the first half," head coach Ray Lopes said. "We played really, really poor. Our poorest half of the year. We only shot 29 percent and we were our own worst enemy.
"We did respond in the second half. [We] played a lot smarter, took a lot better care of the basketball, executed our offense better and got higher percentage shots. That helped. I think we held them scoreless for almost 10 minutes. It was just good to get out of here with a win."
Sacramento State didn't score in the second half until Jason Harris hit a free throw with 11 minutes, 32 seconds left in the game. The Bulldogs led 44-31 at that point.
The Hornets' first field goal came with 7:10 remaining. The Alex Bausley jump shot ended a 29-2 run by Fresno State, in which the Hornets' only points came from two free throws.
Harris led the Hornets with 13 points, but had seven of the team's 22 turnovers. The Bulldogs had 21 turnovers.
Two other Bulldogs also scored in double figures as freshman Donovan Morris had 16 points and three 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Ja'Vance Coleman scored 14.
Fresno State returns to the court Saturday at 7 p.m. for a home game against Oregon.
