BOXSCORE
“The first 20 minutes was pretty painful,” said coach Cleveland.
“We haven’t played like that all year. It surprises me to be very honest. Considering how we played lately, and the kind of energy and the competitiveness we’ve had. We just could not make a shot and that carried over to our defensive effort. It was pathetic.”
“That’s really disappointing. I just didn’t see it coming not from practice not from preparation not from the way we played. But it happened.
“We had guys that had great looks and couldn’t make them. And we did settle for probably too many threes. In a game like that we probably should’ve had 20 [three-pointers] instead of 30. We had a hard time scoring inside [in the middle of the first half]. “We dug ourselves in a big hole.”
“In the second half, we came out and played really well. We were aggressive. We got back to a point where we were back in the game, and we were down seven. Then we turned it over, had some breakdowns, and had that slippage again. In league play, we can’t play 20 minutes and beat anybody. The first 20 minutes was abysmal.”
Saturday night’s win was the first on the road for the Aggies.
“First road win of the season and it could’ve come at a better time,” said NMSU head coach Marvin Menzies.
Fresno State drops to 7-8 on the season 0-1 in WAC play. The 'Dogs host San Jose State next Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Save Mart Center. The Spartans lost their WAC opener 66-61 Saturday night at home to Louisiana Tech.
Game Notes
FS won the tip, Dwight O’Neil scores first field goal of the game at the 19:18 mark. It was just one of two FS FGs in the game’s first 13 minutes.
Brandon Webster was the ‘Dogs first sub coming in at the 16:15 mark to help shore up the middle against NMSU’s 7-0 center Hamidu Rahman.
FS took an early 6-3 lead after O’Neil converts two free throws with 15:40 left in the half.
NMSU answers FS with a dunk to start a run 19-2 run over the next eight minutes.
Sixth-man Mychal Ladd came in at the 13:19 mark but missed his first two shots. Less than a minute in, he missed an open jumper. With FS down 10-6, Ladd missed an open three with 11:44 left in the game.
Webster breaks a 14-0 NMSU run by making two free throws cutting the lead to 17-8.
Paul George breaks a nine minute FS FG drought with a dunk off a pass from O’Neil.
NMSU build its biggest lead at 19 with 3:46 left in the half at 33-14.
FS cuts the lead to 14 after a Ladd free throw, a Sylvester Seay put back, and a George 15-foot jumper in just over a minute of play.
NMSU closes out the half with a mini 7-3 run to take a 40-22 halftime lead.
FS starts the game making only 2 of its first 15 shots en route to a 8-of-31 performance including just 1-of-14 from beyond the arc.
FS goes on a 13-2 run to start the second half against an Aggie man defense.
FS cut the lead to seven, 42-35, after a O’Neil air-ball pass sets up Ladd’s lay-in.
NMSU answers FS with a 13-0 run to push the Aggies to their biggest lead at that point of the game at 20, 55-35. The catalyst for the run was NMSU switching back to the 2-3 zone.
FS stops the run with back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead to 55-41.
FS cut the lead back to 10 with 5:30 left in the game after George converted a breakaway reverse lay-up, which followed a Ned Golubovic three-pointer.
NMSU would answer with 11-0 run that put the game out reach. It gave the Aggies its largest lead of the game at 21 points.
FS made a late push against the Aggie backups with Ladd and Brandon Sperling hitting back-to-back three point shots.
FS attempted 30 three-pointers, hitting just seven.
O’Neil had as many turnovers as assists, six. And he shot just 23% from the field.
NMSU outscored FS 36-26 in the paint.
George recorded his fifth double-double of the year.
©Copyright 2009, BarkBoard.com and Scout.com. All rights reserved