As bounce-back games go, Kevin Olekaibe did pretty well.
He didn't quite have the same resilience as a Super Ball, the turbocharged rubber sphere marketed by Wham-O in the 1960s that became an instant hit. But in scoring a season-high 28 points in Fresno State's 70-63 loss at Boise State on Monday Olekaibe came pretty close, helping put the Bulldogs in position to win a game on the road for the first time this year.
The sophomore guard had hit only 3 of 13 shots including 1 of 9 from behind the 3-point line in a loss to Cal Poly, coming back from a sprained ankle that had limited him in practice.
But with the ankle only marginally better he hit 10 of 17 shots against the Broncos, his highest shooting percentage of the season (58.8) and matched a career-high with 10 field goals set last season in a game at San Jose State in which he scored a career-high 29 points.
''He's still about 90%,'' Coach Rodney Terry said. ''But he showed us a lot in terms of his toughness and his grit and bouncing back. Did he have a tough day the other day [against Cal Poly]? He had a tough day. But he bounced back and I was real proud of the way he responded.''
Olekaibe got off to a fast start at Boise, and didn't press coming off the poor game against Cal Poly. He missed his first shot, but got an easy layup, then another off a steal and hit a pull up jumper off a steal by forward Jerry Brown to open the game. He ended up hitting six of his first eight shots and had 14 of the Bulldogs' 23 points in the first half.
Boise State didn't really slow him down the in second half.
''He really let the game come to him,'' Terry said. ''He didn't force the issue in terms of trying to get going a little bit and I thought he played hard on the defensive end as well.
''I'm proud of our guys in terms of the effort and execution was there. You throw out the 50-50 balls and you do the job on the glass and we would have had an opportunity to close it out.''
Fresno State plays at Arizona State on Wednesday, its final game before taking a Christmas break. Shots figure to be there again for Olekaibe, who is averaging 19.4 points per game and has knocked down 36 3-point shots, the best marks in the Western Athletic Conference.
The Sun Devils are ranked 297th of 338 Division I teams in 3-point field goal percentage defense.
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