Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Louisiana Tech
Bulldogs Victorious in WAC Opener
1/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2008
RUSTON, La. (AP) - Eddie Miller scored a game-high 17 points and Kevin Bell dropped in 13 more as Fresno State handily defeated Louisiana Tech 61-44 in the Western Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Thursday. Miller, the WAC leader in three point field goals, added five more tonight running his season total to 50.
Neither team shot particularly well in the first half as Fresno State (8-6, 1-0) held a 24-18 lead at the break. Tech (3-10, 0-1) was shooting only 19 percent from the field (5-of-26) but had knocked down six free throws to keep it close.
A steal and a dunk by Drew Washington with 9:59 to play in the first frame cut the Fresno lead to one at 15-14. But Tech would get no closer the rest of the way as it managed only four points the rest of the half - all on free throws - and did not connect from the field until the 17:51 mark of the second half on a jumper by Kyle Gibson.
Fresno State then found its stroke from beyond the 3-point arc, knocking down five to push its lead to as many as 18 in the final minutes. Louisiana Tech, by contrast, was just 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) from long range.
Gibson led Tech with 16 points.
Head Coach Steve Cleveland
"Anytime you can win a WAC game on then you are going to be pleased. Louisiana Tech played hard but under Coach Rupp it's clear they don't have all of the pieces in place yet. I was pleased with the win. We have some things we can learn from and improve upon. We turned the ball over too much tonight. Fifteen is more than we'd like. I'd settles for 10 turnovers. We rebounded well and got some good work on the boards from Hector (Hernandez), (Bryan) Harvey, and Alex (Blair)."
"We had some guys step up and hit some big shots tonight. Ned (Golubovic) was open and hit some shots and he needs to do that. Folks aren't going to guard him until he can do that consistently. Eddie Miller knocked down some big shots for us. Those guys were key for us. We had some other guys who are good shooters have off nights."
"We know what lies ahead. New Mexico State was picked to win the WAC and they will have 10,000 screaming fans. We will have to play better than we did tonight to get a sweep on this road trip. We have some work ahead of us and a long road trip, but we will be ready. We are looking forward to it."
Notes
- The Dogs have won five straight WAC road games dating back to last season, including wins at Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State and Utah State at the end of the 2006-07 season.
- The Bulldogs are now 9-9 all-time against Louisiana Tech and have won four straight in the series that began in 1984.
- Fresno State never trailed in the game and earned its largest margin of 17 points (56-39) late in the game.
- The game was played on a brand new floor at the Thomas Assembly Center named Karl Malone Court. Malone, the second-leading scorer in NBA history, is a member of the basketball Hall of Fame and considered the greatest player in Tech history. Malone watched the game from the front row of the arena.
- La Tech's new head coach Kerry Rupp and Fresno State's Steve Cleveland have known each other for a long time. Rupp was an assistant coach at Utah under Rick Majerus from 2000-2004, while Cleveland was the head coach at BYU. Utah and BYU are Mountain West Conference rival schools.
- This is the first time the Dogs opened the WAC season on the road since the 2003-04 season. Fresno State won at Hawaii 69-58 on January 3, 2004.
- The game was televised by the Bulldog Sports Network, the second of seven games on BSN. Saturday's New Mexico State game will also be televised on BSN. The halftime features included a ljve interview with Bulldog football coach Pat Hill, and feature segments on Bulldog softball player Robin Mackin and long-time basketball athletics trainer Ed Ferreira, who's retiring after 29 seasons on the Bulldog bench.
- Alex Blair returned to the starting line-up for the first time since Dec. 8 at UNLV. He finished the game with two points and four rebounds in 14 minutes of action.
- Freshman Nedeljko Golubovic set season-highs with eight points and three-point field goals with two.
- Fresno State entered the game leading the WAC in three point field goals per game, more than nine per contest. The Dogs finished just under that pace making seven. Fresno State has 121 threes this season, which ranks among the top 20 programs in the nation.
- Eddie Miller kept his WAC lead in threes, besting his 3.43 per game average with five three point field goals against La Tech and led the Dogs with 17 points.
- Bryan Harvey tied career-highs with nine rebounds and three steals in the game.
"Join the State - Fresno State! The Bulldogs return home January 8 to take on Saint Mary's College at 7 p.m. in the Save Mart Center. For ticket information, click on the tickets icon at the top of this page. The Dogs continue their road trip Saturday at 6 p.m. when they take on New Mexico State. The game will be televised by the Bulldog Sports Network and can be heard live on radio on KMJ Radio AM 580 and in Spanish on ESPN Deportes 1600 AM.
