Robinson, Fresno State blitz Weber State early in 69-43 decision
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- Fresno State center Orlando Robinson (10) blocks the shot of Weber State’s JJ Overton (24) on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State guard JJ Overton (24) is trapped by Fresno State’s Orlando Robinson (10) and Leo Colimiero (23) on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State guard Koby McEwen (15) drives against Fresno State’s Orlando Robinson (10) on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
OGDEN — A holiday break is welcome for Weber State men’s basketball, which has taken beatings against four top-60 teams after starting 8-0 this season.
“Right now, I’m kind of tongue-tied. We’ve just got a lot to fix,” WSU senior guard JJ Overton said. “We’ve got a lot on our minds and I think this little Christmas break to rejuvenate, go see our families and just kind of get away from basketball for a minute, I think we all need that.
“It’s a long season. When we come back from Christmas break, I think we’ll get back to playing the way Weber State plays.”
Thursday evening brought the Fresno State Bulldogs to the Dee Events Center and, while their defensive abilities were a known quantity, it was an offensive outburst and corresponding Weber State lapses that decided the game.
Orlando Robinson, 7 feet tall and a projected NBA draft pick, was too much to handle early and opened up a run of easy offense for Fresno State, which cruised to a 69-43 victory.
Weber State (9-4) started freshman Alex Tew at center, subbed in Michal Kozak early, and eventually went to Cody Carlson in the second half while again keeping Dontay Bassett on the bench. Against Tew and Kozak early, Robinson totaled 11 points and grabbed three offensive rebounds over a stretch of less than four minutes, putting Fresno up 27-10 with a dunk and 10:45 left in the first half.
Robinson totaled 14 points and seven rebounds to that point. That opened Fresno’s offense as Weber tried to slow Robinson with a double-team, and the Bulldogs shot way above their station from the 3-point line.
Overton converted a three-point play to make it 9-7 early but, once Robinson got going, Fresno State (10-3) poured on a 27-3 run over 10 minutes of basketball that put the Bulldogs up 36-10. The game was 33-33 over the final 26 minutes but the Wildcats were outclassed in the early onslaught and Fresno slowed the game down offensively to ensure there weren’t enough possessions to make up the deficit.
Robinson led FSU with 22 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Anthony Holland added 10 points, Junior Ballard had nine points, and Isaiah Hill totaled six points, six assists and five rebounds.
The Bulldogs shot 11 of 23 from the 3-point line, an increasingly sore spot for the Weber State defense, albeit against high-level teams. Overton and WSU head coach Randy Rahe both attributed Thursday’s result to slacking in on-ball defense, saying once Fresno was able to penetrate the paint off the dribble, everything else fell apart.
Overton led the Wildcats with 12 points. Koby McEwen totaled 10 points and eight rebounds, and Dillon Jones scored four points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
In another increasingly sore spot, WSU shot just 3 of 19 from deep. Overall, the Wildcats rate moderately well to solidly good in most areas on both sides of the ball, except at the 3-point line: shooters who had shown they can knock down shots stopped making them, and opponents have started knocking them down with ease.
For example, in two conference games against Northern Arizona and Portland State, opponents shot 11 of 38 (28.9%) from behind the arc. But in four games against Washington State, Utah State, BYU and Fresno State, those opponents shot 55 of 101 (54.5%), with a glaring average of 13.75 makes per game.
“Once we tweak a few things for each game … it’s just on us as basketball players to adjust,” Overton said. “The coaches can only do so much, it’s on us players to really turn this around.”
Rahe said his team “took the bait” of Fresno’s pressure to rush into quick shots early in the game and, with how good the Bulldogs are defensively, couldn’t recover to find any rhythm after that.
“(Rahe) told us, do not forget about this first half no matter what you do … and I think we would never forget about that feeling, down 24 and the game just started, that’s unheard of,” Overton said.
There’s confidence in the locker room that Weber State has what it needs to solve its recent woes. Overton said that’s because the break will help rejuvenate minds and bodies, and because the team is staying together and is committed to improving.
“We wet the bed this whole game, but (coach) has faith in us, I have faith in this team,” Overton said. “After games like this, you would think the locker room is so down and everybody feels that … we could feel that energy, but we all knew that it’s good. That’s hard to get a group of guys to all buy in and be like, we’re OK. It’s quick to be like ‘we just got blown out, it’s going to be a long season’ — no.
“We ran into some walls and ran into some mistakes, but they’re mistakes that prepare us for conference. So once everyone gets back, we’ll be locked in and I assume, I’m confident, that we’ll go on another tear and get this rolling.”