Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Seattle University
Dogs Rain on Seattle
1/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Photo Gallery FRESNO, Calif. - Coming off a tough four-game WAC stretch, the Bulldog men's basketball team got just what it needed with a non-conference breeze over Seattle University Monday night at the Save Mart Center. The Dogs led by 15 points at halftime and pushed to a season high in points for an 86-56 victory in front of 6,956 fans.
The teams traded buckets and momentum shifts early in the game until the Dogs began to take control at 27-19 on a Tyler Johnson to Kevin Olekaibe coast to coast play that resulted in three points with 7:56 remaining. That gave Olekaibe nine points in the half, nearly equaling his per game score average. He led the Dogs with 17 points in the game, knocking down three treys.
Johnson, who like Olekaibe is a freshman, followed that with a steal on the next possession that lead to a Ned Golubovic three-point play and the Dogs extended a 12-point scoring run to an 11-point lead 30-19. Johnson led the Dogs with 10 assists, who as a team posted a season high of 27 assists. Johnson had two spectacular dunks late in the game that left the SMC crowd buzzing.
Another freshman, Bracken Funk, drilled his second three-pointer with 3:30 to play to extend Fresno State's to 13 points 38-25. He set a new career high with 15 points, besting his previous mark of 14 against North Dakota State. He made 4 of his 5 three-point attempts, also career bests.
Golubovic, coming off a 13-point performance at Hawaii, scored 10 points in the first half making 4 of 5 field goal attempts and a couple of free throws as the Bulldog took a 44-29 to the locker room at halftime. It was Fresno State's largest lead to that point.
Fresno State carried the momentum into the second half, pushing its lead to the 20-point margin with 14 minutes remaining 51-31 and cruised to an easy victory. The Bulldogs held Seattle to a season-low of 56 points.
The Dogs entered the game coming off its best half of basketball of the season in a lost at Hawaii last Thursday in which they nearly erased a 20-point halftime deficit.
"The key to tonight's game was that we were unselfish," said head coach Steve Cleveland. "We have been in some tough league games and those were emotionally and mentally draining. But we were able to come out tonight and pushed the ball in transition and really moved the ball very well. We were able to make some three point shots and we had 27 assists, all of those things will be a key to our success the rest of this season."
The Bulldogs return to WAC play this week, taking on Nevada on Thursday and San Jose State on Saturday, both on the road. The Wolf Pack is playing well since the Dogs won the first match-up 80-74 on Jan. 3 at the Save Mart Center.
"Nevada is playing very well right now," said Cleveland. "They have a lot of talent. Everyone picked them to finish second or third in the WAC this year. We played very well when we played them earlier this year and we will have to go into that game with a great mindset to win in that arena."
Bulldog Notes
- The Dogs have three more non-conference games in the 2010-11 season, playing a home-and-home series against Cal State Bakersfield and hosting the ESPN Bracketbuster on Feb. 19 against an undetermined opponent.
- Fresno State's record moved to 8-10 overall and is 3-4 in WAC games. Seattle is 8-13 overall.
- Fresno State evened the all-time series at two wins for each school. The Red Hawks are coached by Cameron Dollar, a member of the 1995 UCLA Bruins national championship team. He is best known for being the inbounder during the play in which Tyus Edney hit a bank shot as time expired to beat Missouri in the 2nd Round, as well as for playing point guard for nearly the entire game after Edney became injured.
- The Dogs set a new season high for three point field goals with nine in the game.
- Fresno State's 26 assists in the game were a season high, three more than it had in any games this year. Tyler Johnson's 10 assists were a career high.
"We are Your Team!"The Dogs return to WAC action on Thursday, Jan. 27, at rival Nevada. The game will be at 7 p.m. PT and live on the Bulldog Sports Network, KMJ 580 AM and televised on the WAC Sports Network in the Fresno market on KAIL 53, Comcast channel 13 and also available on ESPN3.
