Fresno Leader

Fresno State University Athletics issued the following announcement on Dec 30.

The Fresno State men's basketball team suffered an 81-59 road loss to the Colorado State Rams on Wednesday afternoon at Moby Arena.

Fresno State sophomore forward Orlando Robinson scored a season-high 19 points and tied his career-high 15 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double to begin the season. This was the ninth double-double of Robinson's career.

Deon Stroud produced 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting in nearly 16 minutes before fouling out for the Bulldogs, who were playing their second game of the 2020-21 season against a Division I opponent.

The loss was the second for Fresno State (2-2, 0-2 Mountain West) to Colorado State (5-1, 2-0 MW) during the two-game conference-opening series in Fort Collins.

The Bulldogs will next play on Saturday and then Monday in a two-game series with the Wyoming Cowboys back home at the Save Mart Center.  Both games will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network and 940 AM ESPN Radio.

How it happened: After Robinson opened the scoring with a driving lay-up to the basket on a baseline out-of-bounds assist from Isaiah Hill, CSU scored the next 11 points and that just was just the beginning a big opening half for the Rams, who worked their way to a 41-17 halftime lead over the Bulldogs.

Fresno State's first three baskets were cutting or driving lay-ups as the Bulldogs attacked the paint and looked to create high-percentage shots early, but often settled for long-range looks throughout the contest.  The 'Dogs converted 20 percent of their 3-point field goal attempts (6-for-30) and finished with a 34.3 percent clip overall (23-for-67) field goal percentage.

Colorado State took advantage of their opportunities on both ends of the floor, including the free throw line where the Rams went 26-for-32 (81.3 percent), while the Bulldogs converted seven of their 14 opportunities at the charity stripe.

While CSU had a slight advantage on the glass, Fresno State had 14 offensive rebounds and allowed just two by Colorado State, with the Bulldogs outscoring the Rams 11-2 in second-chance points.

Original source can be found here.