Fresno State beats Nevada 81-76 for wire-to-wire road win

RENO, Nev. --- The Fresno State men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 81-76 road win over the Nevada Wolf Pack on Saturday afternoon inside the Lawlor Events Center.

How it happened: Fresno State (13-7, 5-3 Mountain West) jumped out to a 17-point lead late in the first half and withstood Nevada (16-4, 5-2 MW) down the stretch as the Bulldogs' grabbed a wire-to-wire win over the conference leader.

This was Fresno State's second win over Nevada this season and has the Bulldogs a half game back of first place in the league race.

Fresno State redshirt junior guard Jaron Hopkins scored a team-high 19 points with six rebounds and five assists to lead five Bulldogs in double figures. Bulldogs' redshirt sophomore guard Deshon Taylor added 18 points, while freshman Bryson Williams tied his career-high with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Fresno State shot 28-for-51 (54.9 percent) from the field, including a 13-for-22 (59.1 percent) clip in the second half. And the Bulldogs' defense delivered a strong effort against a potent Nevada offense, who had averaged 80 points per game entering the game, and the 'Dogs showed confidence and poise in key situations.

Fresno State outscored Nevada 42-24 in the paint and won the rebounding battle 35-20, while the Bulldogs also converted a season-high 80 percent of its free throw attempts (20-for-25).

After jumping in front 31-14 with 6:35 to play in the first half, Fresno State maintained a double-digit lead at halftime with the Bulldogs ahead 39-26 at the break.

Nevada cut Fresno State's lead to 46-44 when the Wolf Pack's Marcus Marshall hit a deep 3-pointer with 13 minutes left to play in the second half, but Nevada never tied the game or took the lead despite a resilient comeback bid that was stymied by Fresno State making big defensive stops, important shots and clutch free throws in the closing minutes.

Quoteable:
Rodney Terry, Fresno State head coach
"We're just taking it possession by possession and in practice going as hard as we can go and then game by game as hard as we can go. That's our approach. The biggest thing for us right now is we're still trying to improve as a team."

"We kept playing. We just said, 'You know what guys, it's going to be a 40-minute game. We know this. Keep playing. Stay the course. This is a long game. There's a lot of time in this game. They're going to make runs. Just keep working the game.'"

Jaron Hopkins, Fresno State redshirt junior guard
"We were expecting them to go on a run. (Marcus) Marshall is an elite scorer in our league so it was about containing him. It was just about staying poised, and staying confident in ourselves that we were going to win this game. We just had to take it possession by possession and close it out."

"We knew we had to take care of the ball in this game and in the first half we didn't do that, especially me. As a point guard, I have to take care of the ball better and in the second half I did that. I just know that I'm capable of making some plays. It was about being aggressive, getting to the Mountain West (the paint) and making some plays in the lane."

Player Notes:
Jaron Hopkins (19 points, six rebounds and five assists)
Hopkins posted his 14th game this season (third straight game) with 10 or more points … he has grabbed at least five rebounds in six of the last seven games … this was his second straight game with at least five assists.

Deshon Taylor (18 points)
Taylor posted his fifth game this season (third straight game) with 18 or more points … in the last three games, he has averaged 18.6 points per game.

Bryson Williams (14 points and eight rebounds)
Williams tied his single-game career-high in points (14) and rebounds (8) … Williams was also perfect at the free throw line (6-for-6) and has made his last 11 free throw attempts.

Team Notes:

Fresno State has completed its 10th regular season sweep of Nevada in program history, and the second regular season sweep of Nevada in the last three seasons.
Fresno State has now won six of the last seven meetings with Nevada.
Five of the last six games in the Fresno State-Nevada series have been decided by five points or fewer.
Nine of Fresno State's 10 road games this season have been decided by nine points or fewer (all four road wins by five points or fewer).
Fresno State has now won 14 of its last 17 games when playing a MW team.
Fresno State has now won eight of its last 14 true road games.
Fresno State improved to 13-2 this season when leading at halftime (29-3 since the start of the 2015-16 season).
Fresno State has scored at least 80 points in 11 of its last 21 games.
Fresno state has scored 80 or more points seven times this season.
Fresno State has now won 23 of its last 24 games when scoring 80 or more points.
Fresno State improved to 32-3 when scoring 80 or more points since head coach Rodney Terry's arrival in 2011 and 26-2 in those games since the start of the 2013-14 season.
During Terry's tenure, Fresno State 12-1 when exactly five Bulldogs score in double digits and 18-2 when at least five Bulldogs score in double digits.

Next Up: Fresno State will have its first conference bye this week and will next play at Utah State on Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. PT before returning to the Save Mart Center for a two-game homestand the first week of February when the Bulldogs host Air Force on Feb. 1 and San Diego State on Feb. 4.

Single-game tickets for all Fresno State home games are available at the Save Mart Center Box Office and www.ticketmaster.com.

3-game and 5-game mini-plans are available through the Bulldog Ticket Office (northeast corner of the Save Mart Center) or by calling 559-278-DOGS and then pressing "1."

"Just the Ticket to Build Our Community" – The Bulldog Scholarship Fund gives Bulldog alumni, fans and friends the opportunity to support Fresno State Athletics and the student-athletes who inspire them. For information about how you can support the Bulldog Scholarship Fund, please visit www.bulldogscholarshipfund.com or call 559-278-7160.

Fresno State beats Nevada 81-76 for wire-to-wire road win

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Team Stats

Jaron Hopkins

Deshon Taylor

Bryson Williams

Paul Watson

Players Mentioned

Jaron Hopkins

Deshon Taylor

Bryson Williams

Players Mentioned

Jaron Hopkins

Deshon Taylor

Bryson Williams