BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The Fresno State men's basketball team protected its Central Valley floor with a gritty 56-48 win over the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners on Tuesday night at the Icardo Center.
Fresno State (4-7) dug into its deep Valley roots with Isaiah Hill – a Bakersfield native – scoring a season-high 17 points and tying a career-high with eight assists to headline the Bulldogs' victory in Kern County.
Anthony Holland added 12 points, which were all from beyond the 3-point line, for Fresno State, who limited CSUB (4-7) to just 28 points from the field.
How It Happened
Neither team led by more than five points in the tightly contested first half, which featured six of the 11 3-pointers made by Bulldogs in the contest.
Fresno State raced out to a 36-29 lead early in the second half and later led CSU 44-34 nearly midway through the second half with the Roadrunners answering back with a 6-0 run to cut the Bulldogs lead down to four.
That was as close as Bakersfield would get as a three-pointer by Destin Whitaker and a post bucket by Eduardo Andre put the 'Dogs up nine. Hill knocked down a dagger of a 3-pointer in the final minute and four free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Notes
Fresno State improved to 11-5 (overall) and 3-3 (road games) in its all-times series with CSUB.
Fresno State has now won nine of its last 10 meetings in the series.
Fresno State has now won seven straight games when leading at halftime (6-0 in head coach Justin Hutson's tenure).
Fresno State has now won 44 straight games when limiting its opponent to fewer than 50 points (11-0 in head coach Justin Hutson's tenure.
Fresno State has limited 22 of its last 23 regular season opponents to fewer than 70 points.
Fresno State led for more than 28 minutes of the 40-minute battle.
Up next
The 'Dogs open Mountain West play at home on Dec. 28 hosting Wyoming at the Save Mart Center.