Fresno State Athletics
Back-to-Back for Marvelle Harris!
3/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Stephen Trembley
strembley@csufresno.edu
www.GoBulldogs.com
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- For the second straight week, Fresno State senior guard and all-time leading scorer Marvelle Harris earned Mountain West Player of the Week honors, the league office announced Monday morning from the Thomas & Mack Center.
This is Harris' fifth career MW weekly accolade and ties Boise State's James Webb III and New Mexico's Elijah Brown for the most by a MW student-athlete this season with three weekly honors during the 2015-16 season. Harris and Webb are the only two MW student-athletes to win the weekly award in back-to-back weeks this season.
"I said it two weeks ago, I think Marvelle's the best player in this league and I think he has played that way throughout the course of conference play," Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry said of Harris, who is one of two players in the nation (Kay Felder-Oakland) ranking in the top three in their conference in points per game, assists per game, steals per game, assist-to-turnover ratio and minutes per game.
Fresno State (22-9, 13-5 Mountain West) enters this week's MW Basketball Championships in Las Vegas as the No. 2 seed, which is the Bulldogs' best seed for a conference tournament since 2001, after winning its final six regular season games. The 'Dogs went 2-0 last week with an 87-73 win over Colorado State and an 86-85 road win at Utah State.
During the past week, Harris averaged 28.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.0 steals while leading the Bulldogs to their 12th and 13th conference games, which marks the first time Fresno State has won 13 games in conference play since the 2002-03 season.
Harris scored 34 points and had six rebounds, five assists and four steals in surging the Bulldogs back from an 18-point deficit to win at Utah State. Harris scored 27 of his 34 points in the second half, including 13 points in final 7:24, and made four free throws in the final minute that turned an 83-80 deficit with 1:04 left into an 84-83 lead with 20 seconds remaining - a lead Fresno State would not relinquish.
Earlier in the week, Harris scored 23 points with six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block as the Bulldogs beat Colorado State 87-73.
With 57 points during the week, Harris became Fresno State's all-time leading scorer with 1,954 career points - passing former first round draft pick Melvin Ely's previous mark of 1,951 career points, which stood for 14 years.
Fresno State is 6-0 this season in games decided by a single possession (three points or fewer), including 5-0 in conference play, as the Bulldogs have turned to Harris down the stretch as a guard who can run the point and play off the ball.
No. 2 seed Fresno State opens the MW Championships on Thursday at 6 p.m. PT in the quarterfinals versus the winner of Wednesday's opening round game between No. 7 seed UNLV and No. 10 seed Air Force. The Bulldogs can earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the MW Tournament, which would require three wins in three days starting Thursday.
"Be Bold." --- The flagship radio stations for Fresno State men's basketball are 940 AM ESPN Radio and 1600 AM ESPN Deportes.
