Story by Stephen Trembley, gobulldogs.com:
The stretch drive to the 2013 Reese's Mountain West Tournament began Tuesday night as the Fresno State men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 69-64 overtime victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack on Tuesday night at the Lawlor Event Center.
Fresno State forced overtime with five seconds left in regulation when Bulldogs' senior Kevin Foster hit the game-tying 3-pointer off a designed inbounds play that worked to perfection.
"I'm really proud of guys - we had perfect late-game execution," Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry said.
The Bulldogs then took its first lead on a Tyler Johnson dunk 1:38 into the overtime session and never looked back in dominating the extra session by outscoring the Pack 11-6 in the bonus five minutes.
"We are playing for something right now," Terry said of the Bulldogs' opportunity to improve their MW Tournament seeding. "Our guys kept battling and kept fighting. We put ourselves in a position to win the game and we did it."
After the Bulldogs rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit, Nevada went ahead 58-55 on two free throws by Jordan Burris and one by Malik Story. Foster then drained his long-range shot before Nevada's Deonte Burton missed one at the buzzer.
Fresno State never trailed in overtime and took its first lead of the game on Tyler Johnson's dunk with 3:22 left. The Bulldogs added six free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory and snap athree-game losing streak - and a five-game skid against Nevada.
Johnson had 19 points and Foster added 15 for the Bulldogs. Burton scored 12 points to lead the Wolf Pack (12-13, 3-8 Mountain West), who shot just 36.5 percent from the floor.
Fresno State (9-16, 3-9 MW) returns to the court on Saturday night at 7 p.m. PT inside the Save Mart Center when the Bulldogs host Boise State. The 'Dogs will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of winning the 1983 NIT Championship with a WHITE OUT and former Bulldogs will be honored at halftime.
