SAN FRANCISCO – On his back, head against the stanchion, Khalil Shabazz clenched both his fists. The University of San Francisco bench leaped up in unison. Taavi Jurkatamm exploded out of his chair and pulled his knees into his chest, nearly falling over.

Shabazz, the Dons' redshirt sophomore guard, had just hit a layup and drawn a foul with just over a second remaining in a back-and-forth game against Fresno State (4-8), giving San Francisco (11-3)a a lead for the first time in 11 minutes.

On a night when Bulldogs freshman forward Orlando Robinson scored a career-high 24, where the Dons trailed by eight with under two minutes left, Shabazz scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, countering San Francisco's second-half swoon to power a 71-69 road win.

"This was a big turning point," Shabazz said. "Even though we won, it was bigger for our team to know to never give up, when we are down in late-game situations. Just stay together, stick together, keep fighting."

Twice over the previous four games, the Dons had built strong leads against Pac-12 opponents in Arizona State and Stanford, but faded down the stretch and squandered chances at two signature wins.

Again on Monday, San Francisco looked to have the game well in-hand early, starting on a 12-2 run. Against a Bulldogs team missing two starters, San Francisco led by as many as 11 in the first half, but Fresno State turned up the intensity on defense and forced four turnovers in the course of 4:20 to slowly creep back into the game.

"It's a little bit of a concern, but at the same time, it's hard to get up by 10 or 11 early in the game, too," said head coach Todd Golden. "I don't know if it's more the percentages playing out, but we've got to figure out a little bit better way to execute in the half court."

The Bulldogs frustrated the high-scoring Dons (their 83.1 points per game are 12th in the nation) and forced them to use the whole shot clock rather than shoot in rhythm. After hitting six of its first 14 from beyond the arc, San Francisco went 0-for-3 from 3-point range to finish the half, and went just 1-for-7 from the field from 8:24 to 2:38.

"They're big and long and athletic around the rim, and our inability to put pressure on the rim made it so they could cover up on the perimeter," Golden said.

Fresno State cleaned up on the defensive glass and kept pace with the Dons' high tempo, wearing them down and forcing mistakes. Despite the Bulldogs over-playing the perimeter, San Francisco went just 2-of-8 from beyond the arc over the final 5:31 of the first half and the first 11:35 of the second.

San Francisco stayed close until a step-back jumper by Robinson with 3:10 to go, followed by a Robinson three with 2:29 left put the Bulldogs up by eight, seemingly sealing the game. Then came Shabazz.
A transfer from Central Washington, Shabazz has gone from sitting and watching all of last season due to NCAA transfer rules to becoming the Dons' go-to sixth man in his first season on the Hilltop. Coming into Monday, he averaged 9.1 points and 3.4 rebounds in just 18.2 minutes per night. Over his last three games, though, Shabazz struggled, going 7-for-18 from the floor, 1-for-8 from 3-point range and turning the ball over four times with just two assists.

On Monday, he was exactly what the Dons needed, when they needed it. With leading scorers Jamaree Bouyea and Minlend combining for just nine points in the second half on 1-of-9 shooting (they finished with nine and 12, respectively), Shabazz went 5-of-7 after the half, including 4-of-4 from beyond the 3-point line. Three of those came in the span of 94 seconds to cut the lead to two.

"He's really impactful," Golden said. "He can change the game at the drop of a hat. … He definitely provided a spark this game. My gosh, without him, that second half would have gotten a lot uglier. He made a lot of big shots down the stretch that kept us in the game."

A pair of free throws by Bouyea erased the eight-point lead with just 35.4 seconds left, knotting things up once again at 69-69.

"I was so proud of the way we executed defensively," said Golden, whose team finished the game on a 10-2 run. "[We were] just really trying to pressure and trap them, and not let them comfortably get a shot that they wanted. We turned them over. At that point, we said, 'Let's just clear it out, have Khalil or Jamaree get a ball screen at the top, and let's see if they can go make a play."

Shabazz took the in-bound with 13 seconds to go, dribbled the ball at the top of the arc, waited until the clock wound down to under two seconds and hit a jab-step drive down the lane, taking a tumble as he was fouled by Grimes. The free throw was all but a formality.

"We fought," Shabazz said. "We fought. We knew we were going to get that dub."
 
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