Bulldogs rally, but run into themselves down the stretch in a 76-72 loss at Pacific

Fresno State climbed out of a 14-point hole in a matter of minutes and tied the score with five to go, getting stops at one end and attacking the paint at the other. But the Bulldogs finished a 76-72 men’s basketball loss at Pacific with some head-scratching plays.

The Bulldogs (3-6) turned the ball over merely getting it across half court, or trying to Saturday afternoon. They lost 3-point shooters, something they had all game, really, and gave up a layup.

And, down four with still 23 seconds to go, they let Tigers guard Jordan Ivy-Curry steal an offensive rebound from their grasp after he had missed a foul shot that would have given the Bulldogs a shot to make it a one-score game and put Ivy-Curry or one of his teammates back on the line for more pressurized free throws.

“Disappointed, very disappointed,” coach Justin Hutson said. “I thought we started off pretty strong, and had too many lapses again. Every time we sit up here and talk we’re talking about more consistency and there were too many lapses of unforced turnovers that we had. We’d steal the ball or get a big defensive stop and dribble up the floor and turn it over and give it right back to them, and then we didn’t play good-enough defense to win.

“We can’t give up 11 threes at UOP and come in here and win. That’s not a Fresno State basketball team and that was not common for us. It was out of character and it got us beat.”

Of those 11 threes by the Tigers, the two that hurt the most came in those final 5 minutes, both from forward Keylan Boone. Pacific guard Nick Blake scored at the rim to give the Tigers a two-point lead, then after a Bulldogs turnover Boone hit a three, his first made basket after three misses.

The next trip, Boone was left open and knocked down another three ahead of a late closeout.

Fresno State hit 51.9% of its shots, its second highest mark of the season, but the indecisive plays down the stretch and the 11 threes, the most the Bulldogs have allowed in a game this season, are tough to overcome on the road.

“The guys that we had in there that guarded had a hard time running offense and scoring and then the guys that were running offense and scoring had a hard time guarding, and we have to get that fixed,” Hutson said.

After two wins in a row, the Bulldogs took a step backward against the Tigers, who were 3-7, had lost two games in a row and six of their past seven.

“Our team, we’ve been through a lot, but we have to stay together every game, every day, come back and get better,” said forward Leo Colimerio, who hit all four of his shots in scoring 12 points with two rebounds and a steal in 24 minutes.

“We have to figure it out, how to finish out games and stuff like that. I feel like we really can be excited for what’s coming up, because we’re not done yet. It’s a long season. We have to keep working hard and stick together and we’re going to get everything figured out, for sure.”

The Bulldogs have a second week-long break in a row before their next game Saturday against Sacramento State at the Save Mart Center. That 4 p.m. game follows the Fresno State women vs. Utah Valley at 1 p.m.