Three Bulldogs earn All-MW honors

LAS VEGAS – Three Bulldogs – Deshon Taylor, Braxton Huggins and Nate Grimes – earned All-Mountain West honors for leading the Fresno State men's basketball team to a third-place finish in the conference standings entering the 2019 Air Force Reserve MW Basketball Championships.

Taylor (Riverside, Calif.) is just the second Bulldog to earn first-team All-MW honors twice in his career, joining Fresno State's all-time leading scorer Marvelle Harris in the exclusive club. Taylor averaged 18.6 points, 4.7 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game with a 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio during MW play. During the last 10 games of conference play, Taylor averaged 22.3 points per game.

During league action, Taylor ranked in the top seven in the MW in scoring (18.6 ppg), assists (4.7 apg), free throw percentage (75.7 percent), steals (1.3 spg), 3-point field goal percentage (43.8 percent), 3-pointers made (2.7 per game), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7 A-TO) and minutes (35.6 per game). Taylor was also named to the MW's All-Defense Team.

Huggins (Bakersfield, Calif.) is the first player in program history to earn be named a conference Newcomer of the Year. Huggins also was named second-team All-MW as one of the league's most dynamic scorers, who averaged 19.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He scored 30 or more points three times during MW play and made a league-best 64 3-pointers in conference games, which ranks as the third-most ever by an individual in 20 seasons of MW basketball.

Huggins tied a MW record and set a program record with 10 3-pointers in the Bulldogs' 121-81 win over San Jose State on March 9. He also made eight 3-pointers two other times and the go-ahead 3-pointer with five seconds remaining in a 78-77 win at Utah State on Jan. 9.

Grimes (Las Vegas, Nev.) was named to the All-MW Honorable Mention team after averaging a double-double in conference games. Grimes finished the league campaign with 11.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game while making 62.1 percent of his field goal attempts (90-for-145 FG). During MW play, Grimes finished second in rebounding (10.2 rpg), field goal percentage (62.1 percent) and blocked shots (1.5 bpg).

Grimes matched a season-high with 19 points and also had a career-high 19 rebounds (a Save Mart Center record) in the Bulldogs' 82-70 win over New Mexico on Feb. 2.

Earlier in the week, a select group of newspaper reporters and an at-large reporter representing 10 of the 11 MW media markets named Huggins and Taylor as second-team All-MW honorees, while Grimes was a third-team All-MW selection. Huggins was also tabbed as the MW Newcomer of the Year by the select group of media members.

Fresno State (22-8, 13-5 MW) will be the No. 3 seed for this week's winner-take-all tournament, which will be held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Fresno State opens play on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. PT against the winner of Wednesday's first-round game between No. 6 seed Air Force and No. 11 seed San Jose State. Fresno State is the only MW program to have earned a first-round bye in each of the past five seasons, including this season.

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Fresno State Athletics

Three Bulldogs earn All-MW honors

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Nate Grimes

Braxton Huggins

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