Winning college basketball games isn’t easy, and the wins have come few and far between for Fresno State over the last few years.
After today’s game, Head Coach Vance Walberg was still lamenting the loss Wednesday to USC Upstate.
“I freaking hate losing. I want to win every gosh darn game. Wednesday hurt me. Wednesday really, really hurt,” Walberg said.
Fortunately for Walberg, his team turned the page and easily handled Long Beach State in a Saturday afternoon of hoops at the Save Mart Center, with a 82-62 win over the Beach.
“I thought the effort, especially on the defensive side, was phenomenal. The first half offensively, we were really struggling. Couldn’t really do too much, but I thought our defense kept us in the game,” Walberg said.
The Bulldogs held the Beach to 7-of-27 shooting from the field in the first half, while forcing 10 turnovers. Offensively, the ‘Dogs made 15-of-24 shots, including 8-of-14 from beyond the arc.
Grad transfer Jake Heidbreder led the way for the Bulldogs again offensively, making 8-of-13 shots for 24 points to go with three assists and a pair of steals.
“Jake is Jake, he just finds a way to move, keep cutting,” Walberg said. “When we go down, I’m asking {Wilson Jacques} ‘just go find Jake’s man. Let’s find a pin down that’s getting in flow,’ because just that alone is going to open up so many different things.”
They were especially effective in the second half in that plan, with Heidbreder scoring 16 points, making shots while opening up opportunities for other guys to make an impact.
Key Players
- Jake Heidbreder (FS): 24 points (8-13), 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals.
- Wilson Jacques (FS): 12 points (4-7), 13 rebounds, 1 block, 2 steals.
- Petar Majstorovic (LBSU): 9 points (4-10), 6 rebounds, 2 assists.
What happened
Walberg opted to switch the lineup up a bit, replacing big man Makhan Diouf with Cameron Faas, a transfer senior.
The Bulldogs missed 6-of-7 shots to begin the game before a nice jumpshot by Zaon Collins to tie the game 4-4 (15:00 remaining). A couple plays later, Gavin Sykes took advantage of a Bulldog turnover, draining a shot from distance.
A minute later, DJ Stickman forced a steal before getting the ball to Collins who laid in the ‘Dogs third basket of the game. A forced turnover on the following possession forced the Beach to foul and call timeout.
Stickman, a true freshman and former Clovis West standout, has been under Walberg’s tutelage for most of his basketball journey. The ‘athletic freak’ as his coach called him after the game, continues to get minutes (17 on Saturday) thanks to his defense and playmaking, beyond the stat sheet.
“He’s an athletic freak,” Walberg said. “I’ve had him for eight years, so he knows exactly my expectations, and I feel a bit more comfortable with him out there. I know he’s going to play his butt on defense. I know he’s going to be solid. I know he’s going to rebound, and if he puts a ball in one or two times, that’s a big bonus.”
Walberg added that before the game, he told Stickman DJ ‘I don’t care how many fouls you have, just get your butt out there. Give me the defense I know you can do.’
The Bulldogs would keep Long Beach State scoreless for six-and-a-half minutes, led by Stickman and Wilson Jaques, each forcing a steal during that period.
Jacques in particular was critical to the ‘Dogs win on Saturday, posting the first double-double of the season for Fresno State. He took accountability after the game for some of his own struggles.
“I was so mad at myself, because I know I can do a lot better,” Jaques said.
The French freshman has started to adapt but acknowledges that transitioning to Walberg’s offense has not always been easy. He also said that he sees the potential though in this team.
“It was kind of complicated, because you got a particular way to play. But I am still learning, I’m still making some mistakes. I gotta do a better job to find Jake and other guys,” Jacques said. “One of the things wonderful with this team is that we still improve, we still have so many things that we can do better.”
Heidbreder nailed a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Bulldogs a 25-15 lead with 4:03 remaining in the first half.
Fresno State went into halftime up 28-20, despite making just 1-of-9 threes in the first half.
That poor shooting A trio of threes from Cameron Faas (two) and DeShawn Gory out of the break gave the Bulldogs 37-24 lead less than two minutes into a timeout, forcing a Beach timeout. Faas hit another three a few minutes later.
Havoc defense, sound shooting and resilience led to a 34-16 run for the Bulldogs across 10 minutes of play, capped off by a pair of free throws from Jac Mani to give Fresno State a commanding 59-36 lead with 11:09 remaining in the second half.
On Wednesday, the Bulldogs started out strong but fell flat. They made sure to correct that.
“You just can’t give games away at this level. I felt like we gave that game away. I thought we played hard, but there’s just a lot of little freaky things that happened. I just felt today that we played so much harder, and we can play with today’s intensity. You know, I think good things will happen, and it’s my job to make sure they do,” Walberg said.
The big lead at the end of the game allowed Walberg to get minutes for some guys at the end of the bench including Troy Jenkins and newcomers Matteo Porter and Aram Soqui Urbano.
The Bulldogs went on to win 82-62, shooting 50% from the field and outrebounding the Beach 38-26.
“This is a completely different team, I’ll tell you. We had a lot of good kids last year. We have a lot of really good kids this year, but this group plays as a team. They share the bond,” Walberg said.
What’s Next
The ‘Dogs will host the Tritons of UC San Diego this coming Wednesday.
UCSD (1-0) got off to a hot start to the season with a 105-73 victory over La Verne on Monday, after making the NCAA tournament last season, following their victory in the Big West conference tournament. Forward Leo Beath scored 24 points in just 25 minutes to lead them in scoring.
“Look at the next couple games that we have. You got UCSD. You got Utah Valley, who’s always there, they are picked to win their league. Then you got Stephen F Austin, so, I mean, we got a few good ones coming up. I think it’s gonna be a nice challenge for us,” Walberg said.
UCSD will host Houston Christian tonight before coming to Fresno. Wednesday’ game will mark the fourth of eight home games in November for the Bulldogs. Tipoff at the Save Mart Center is set for 6 p.m.