Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
22-9 (13-5MW)
Utah State
15-14 (7-11MW)
Harris Passes Ely as 'Dogs Rally for Win
3/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Stephen Trembley
strembley@csufresno.edu
www.GoBulldogs.com
LOGAN, Utah --- Fresno State senior guard Marvelle Harris scored 34 points with six rebounds, five assists and four steals to lead the Bulldogs' men's basketball team to an 86-85 road win over the Utah State Aggies on Saturday evening at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
With the win, Fresno State (22-9, 13-5 Mountain West) recorded the 10th 22-win season in program history. The Bulldogs will enter the 2016 MW Basketball Championships on a six-game winning streak and the clear No. 2 seed after finishing second in league play -- two games ahead of Boise State.
"This is a really gutty win by our team coming back and fighting through adversity," Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry said. "We just kept working the game. I give my team a lot of credit. These guys they kept battling, they kept fighting and they stayed together. They regrouped. They hit the reset button and they did a great job of coming out and working as hard as they can work it."
To get there, the Bulldogs turned to Harris, the MW's Preseason Player of the Year, for 27 second-half points, including six of Fresno State's final eight points when the Bulldogs trailed by three with under two minutes remaining.
"Marvelle, I said it two weeks ago, I might be a little biased but I think he's the best player in this league and I think he has played that way throughout the course of conference play," Terry said.
With 34 points, Harris climbed to No. 1 all-time on the Bulldogs' all-time scoring list in passing Melvin Ely's record that stood for 14 years. Harris enters the postseason with 1,954 career points.
"Right now, it means a lot," Harris said. "But to me, the win means more. It's always an honor to be recognized for things that you've done, but I feel like that's something you look back on when you're older and things like that. I'm not going to be happy with it, I'm not going to feel content or say that I've done this. I'm going to keep fighting, keep playing basketball, keep trying to help my teammates and just do what we have to do to win."
Down 39-21, Fresno State sophomore guard Jahmel Taylor drained 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions as the Bulldogs closed the first half on a 10-3 run and faced a 42-31 deficit at halftime.
The Bulldogs outscored the Aggies 55-43 in the second half to complete their largest comeback in Terry's five seasons at Fresno State.
"We tried not to look at the scoreboard - when you look at the scoreboard and you start to realize, 'oh, man, we're down 18 -- we have a long way to go,'" Harris said. "We just took it possession by possession. We tried to get stops. We tried to get a shot up every possession. Before you knew it we were within 11 at halftime and we came out with the same defensive mindset and before you knew it, it was a tie game."
Senior guard Julien Lewis and junior forwards Karachi Edo and Cullen Russo each scored 12 points as the Bulldogs shot 50.8 percent (31-for-61) from the field, including a 63.3 percent clip (19-for-30) in the second half.
Utah State (15-14, 7-11 MW) was led by Jalen Moore, who finished with 22 points.
Fresno State will open the 2016 MW Basketball Championships in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday at 6 p.m. PT in the quarterfinals. The Bulldogs will play the winner of Wednesday's game between No. 7 seed UNLV and No. 10 seed Air Force.
"Be Bold." --- The flagship radio stations for Fresno State men's basketball are 940 AM ESPN Radio and 1600 AM ESPN Deportes.
