Fresno State Men's Basketball upsets Wyoming in Mountain West Tournament, advances to quarterfinals

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- On Saturday, the Fresno State Men's Basketball team lost to Wyoming by 39 points at the Save Mart Center. It marked the team's 14th conference loss, tying a record set in the 1989-90 season.

Four days later, the Bulldogs once again proved why March is "madness" in college basketball.

The No. 9 Bulldogs upset No. 8 Wyoming 77-73 in the opening round of the Mountain West Tournament Wednesday afternoon. The Bulldogs now advance to the quarterfinals vs No. 1 Utah State.

"I thought we needed to play with more pride, with more swag and we did it," Bulldog Head Coach Justin Hutson said on the court after the game.

At halftime, Wyoming went into the break with a 40-33 lead.

With 14:21 to go in the second half, Senior Donavan Yap Jr. finally put the Bulldogs back on top after two made free throws to make it 44-43. In his return to the desert, the Las Vegas native finished with 16 points off the bench in his first game since February 10th.

With 5:50 left in the game, Wyoming wrapped up a 10-0 run to take a 9-point lead at 67-58. But then the 'Dogs went on a run of their own. Senior Isaiah Pope drew a foul after taking a hard hit while driving to the basket. Pope would make both free throws to pull within seven, 67-60. The Utah Tech transfer led the Bulldogs with 22 points.

The turning point of the game came with just under two minutes left when Senior PG Isaiah Hill made a layup for his first points of the game, grabbed a steal on the Cowboys' ensuing inbounds pass, and scored another layup to make it a one-point game, 72-71 Wyoming.

Fresno State ended the game on a 12-1 run in the final 2:54 of regulation to pull off the upset.

The Bulldogs thrived at the line, going (22-23 FT, 95.7%) compared to Wyoming's (15-26 FT, 57.7%).

"Very proud of my guys, continuing to fight," Bulldog Head Coach Justin Hutson said after the game. "It was like the 6'5 and under team out there. We deserved one of these."

Coach Hutson pulled Center Enoch Boakye in the second half, and put 6'7 Senior Leo Colimerio at the five to make him the tallest Bulldog on the court.

Despite appearing to be done for the season with a broken left hand, Senior Donavan Yap Jr. played through injury to come off the bench in the win. "Even though we was down a lot, was wasn't going to give up, you know we just kept fighting until the end," Yap Jr. said.

Senior Isaiah Pope was asked how the team turned it around after losing to Wyoming in a blowout just days before. "We got down early that last game and I think a lot of us just gave up on ourselves" Pope said. "Coming into today, this is it. At least for me it could be my last game ever. I told the guys if this is my last 40 minutes I'm going to give everything I have."

Fresno State now faces the outright conference winner and #1-seed Utah State (26-5, 14-4 MW) on Thursday. The last time the Bulldogs played the Aggies was back at the Save Mart Center in late February. Utah State forced overtime on a last-second bank shot 3-pointer from Darius Brown II.

FS would go on to lose 77-73 in overtime. USU also won the first meeting 83-61 in Logan, UT back on January 20th.

Tipoff for Thursday's quarterfinal matchup is set for 12:00 p.m. PT with the game broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.

For sports updates, follow Alec Nolan on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.