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Fresno State Sweeps Air Force
Bulldogs take care of Falcons
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The year can’t come to an end soon enough for the Fresno State Bulldogs, but a two-game series against Air Force will surely make them feel a little better.
Fresno State went to Air Force and won both games in a span of three days by a combined nine points, 69-63 on Thursday and 67-64 on Saturday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/FresnoStateMBB/status/1360710995950247941
The Dogs have had a rough year full of new faces, a delayed start to the year, and COVID issues that have forced them to miss a number of games.
Clune Arena is always a difficult place to play for most teams, especially a Bulldogs team that has to adjust to the altitude after coming from the Central Valley. Nonetheless, they were able to handle Air Force, although it wasn’t as easy as they had hoped.
Let’s start with the first game of the series on Thursday. The Dogs shot 60 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Falcons 31-14 and anytime a team can do that, it’s a good sign.
In fact, the Dogs led by 11 at the half before Air Force dropped 41 points in the second half to narrow it to single digits, Ultimately it didn’t matter as the Dogs got the victory.
Junior Ballard led the Dogs in scoring with 17 points on 4-6 from the field, with three of those four being long-distance buckets. Christian Gray was the only other Fresno player to score in double figures, but it didn’t matter.
Air Force was basically a one-man show on Thursday as AJ Walker scored a game-high 33 points on 8-16 from the field and six three’s as he accounted for more than half of his team’s point total.
https://twitter.com/FresnoStateMBB/status/1360690435337801728
Fast forward to Saturday and the story was a bit different for both teams in a three-point Bulldogs victory.
Orlando Robinson led the scoring for the Bulldogs as he’s done practically all year, and he poured in a game-high 21 points with 11 boards. The Dogs had a more balanced effort outside of that with three others in double figures and with Ballard finishing with a goose egg.
Air Force also had a balanced offensive attack, although in a much different fashion. Nikc Jackson led the team with 13 points and no other player had double digits.
However, five players had eight or more points and eight players scored in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and the Bulldogs will head home with a pair of wins in their pockets and a huge two-game slate against San Diego State.
Fresno State improves to 9-7 overall and 7-7 in the conference and Air Force drops to 4-16 overall and 2-14 in conference play as they await New Mexico, assuming they end up playing.
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