Fresno State
Nevada
Blair Has Career High Against Nevada
3/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 13, 2008
LAS CRUCES, NM- The Fresno State men's basketball team played its best game of the season against Nevada but the Bulldogs still lost to the WAC Co-Champion 64-57 in the quarterfinal round of the WAC tournament on Thursday. Fresno State ends its season with a 13-19 record while Nevada improved to 21-10.
"We competed as well as we have this year against Nevada," Fresno State coach Steve Cleveland said. "We put ourselves in a position to get back in the game and we had plenty of open looks, but you have to hit those shots. Our guys showed a lot of heart tonight. It's been a challenging and difficult year but our guys kept playing with a lot of heart."
The Bulldogs were led in scoring by Alex Blair's career high 14 points in 22 minutes of play. He also had eight rebounds. Kevin Bell and Eddie Miller each had 11 points. Dwight O'Neil had a career best and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Kevin Bell had four assists and became the schools career All-Time assists leader with 599, passing Dominic Young's 598 in 1995-97. Fresno State played excellent defense as they held the Wolf Pack to 11 points below their season average. Nevada's Marcelus Kemp, who averages 21.5 points on the season, was held to 12 points.
"Our guys executed a game plan defensively as well as they have done all year long," Cleveland said. "I was really pleased defensively with how we played. Tonight was the best job we have done against Marcelus. Kevin and Eddie did a great job on their guards. It was a really good defensive effort. We just need to make a couple of baskets and this would have been a more interesting game than it was."
Fresno State was held to 33 percent shooting for the game while Nevada shot 43 percent. Nevada out rebounded the Bulldogs 47-40.
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 12-7 lead six minutes into the game after a layup by Bell. But over the next 10 minutes the Dogs managed only one field goal and fell behind 25-15
Fresno State trailed 31-19 at halftime but made a run in the second half to come within five at 41-36 following a Bell 3-pointer and a Brandon Webster dunk with 13:35 left in the game. Two minutes later Bell hit a 3-pointer to cut the Wolf Pack lead to 43-40.
"Nevada is really long and a solid defensive team," Cleveland said. "You certainly have to give them credit. We definitely had open looks. In order to beat a team like Nevada with significant size and athleticism you have to knock shots down to win games like this. We closed it but we just couldn't finish it."
The Dogs stayed within three points at 49-46 following another Webster basket with 9:26 left in the game.
Fresno State would get no closer the rest of the way as Nevada maintained a six to seven point lead for the remainder of the game.
"Our guys showed a lot of heart," Cleveland said. "It's been a challenging and difficult year but it hasn't been for a lack of effort."
