1993_12 The Daily Collegian December 1993

              10—The Daily Collegian
Thursday, Dec 9,1993
TIMEOUT
Wanted:
Students
at Selland
Arena
In the, early 1980's, Selland
Arena was feared by Fresno Statels
Pacific Coast Athletic Association
(and^non-conference) basketball
opponents. .
The Bulldogs rarely tasted de¬
feat in 'Grant's Tomb', aptly named
in honor of coach Boyd Grant, who,
like William Saroyan, put Fresno
on the map. -
During Grant's tenure, which
included five consecutive trips to
postseason tournaments', Selland
was normal!y filled to capacity ev
Women cagers fall to UOP
Bulldogs lose 62-
60 after last second
shot misses
By David Donnelly
Editor i
in ■ .i i ■
cry time Bernard Thompson, Ron   .go in tne game and Suzanne
Linda Wunder knew the Uni¬
versity of Pacific had a good team.
Pacific came into the contest 2-
1 after wins against Idaho and Sac¬
ramento State. '
The Fresno State women's bas¬
ketball coach was hoping her Bull¬
dogs could hang tough against the
Tigers.
Fresno Siate almost got the job
done, but it wasn't meant to be.
'Kristi Fulton missed a three-
point attempt with three seconds to
Anderson and Rod Higglns stepped
onto the court, and grew from ap¬
proximately 6,600 seats in 1982 to
10,132 in 1984.
The progress of the tomb's ex¬
pansion was comparable" to the
growth of Bulldog Stadium, which
again is in demand for more seating
as FSU climbs into national foot¬
ball prominence.
Even when Ron Adams
struggled as Grant's successor,
Fresno State's box score still reacL, I
'Attendance 10,132' despite those
9-20 find 9-19 campaigns that cost
Adams his job.
Today, Selland Arena'sseating
capacity is listed at 10,159. The
last time that many seats were sold
was the Bulldogs' final homegame
during the 1991-92 season.
Besides saying good-bye to se¬
niors Wil Hooker and Tod Ber¬
nard, among others, FSU fans made
the journey downtown to watch
r/evada-Las Vegas, with Jerry
Tarkanian, a local native and Fresno
State graduate, coaching his final
7 game in Self and while leading
UNLV.
Among the fans in attendance
that night was myself, when Iowned
a season ticket in what might be
identified as the student section. I
shelled out $85 for the seat and
probably another $35 on fees to
park in the lots that surround the
Convention Center.
But very few'of the supporters
that went to home games that sea¬
son were students. Can you blame
You can't expect that kind of
money to be spent with budget cuts
crippling the California Stale Uni¬
versity system and annual fee in¬
creases. Eighty-five dollars for a
season ticket plus the additional
fees for parking and gas adds up to
a bunch of money.
Many students do not have ac¬
cess to a car, so transportation is
See Cocolea, page 11
Zahasky missed an eight foot bank
shot allowing the Tigers to hang on
for a 62-^0 victory Wednesday
night at the North Gym,
"I thought Our kids hung in there
real tough," Wunder said. "I was
pleased they play ed hard defense."
Zahasky led the Bulldogs with
12 points while Kari Jorgensen
added 10 points.
Fulton wasn't sorry she took the
shot
'T didn't have a clean shot, but I
did what I had to do," Fulton said.
The Bulldogs held a 35-33 half-
time lead and came out with fire in
their eyes, '       ) -
However, the Bulldogs couldn't
convert their shot attempts, shoot
ing 20 percent in the second half,
allowing the Tigers to stay close.
Wunder said the Bulldogs have
to learn to take advantage of those
shots. • .
"They gave us all kinds of
opportunites." Wunder said. "We
need to work hard to convert those."
While Wunder said the Bull¬
dogs need to take advantageof their
opportunities. Pacific coach Mel¬
issa DeMarchi was counting her
blessings Fresno State couldn't
capitalize and build on the lead.
Pacific wasn' t much better dur¬
ing the first three minutes of the
second half.   . ••*   \%
"Their momentum was clearly
better, DeMarchi said. "We were
able to regain our tempo before
they [FSU} could regroup."
The Tigers regrouped and were
able to take a 37-35 with 17 min¬
utes and 38 seconds left in the con¬
test,
Despite Fresno State's prob¬
lems, the Tigers were still having
difficulties of their own and the
Bulldogs were able to reel off six
straight points for a 41-37 lead.
j But the Buljdogs continued to
miss their shotsind the Tigers were
able to tie the game at 44 with 9:31
left.
Pacific continued the rush and six-point advantage, ffl-56, with
outscoredtheBulldogsl2-6totake f 24 seconds left the Bulldogs staged
a 56-50 lead with 3:19 remaining,     a rally.
As was the case all night, the
Bulldogs would hang tough. Fresno
was able to creep within 56-55 with
2:46 remaining on the strength of a
three-pointer and two free throws
by Fulton.
After the Tigers regained their
- Tommy Monreal/Dally Collegian
Fresno State's Suzanne Zahasky dribbles between her legs during
Wednesday night's game at the North Gym. The Dogs lost 62-60.
one, the Bulldogs worked the ball
around the three-point line, finally
finding Fulton for the three-point
Holly Julian calmly sank both
ends of a one-arid-one to cut the
lead to 62-58. With 22 seconds
remaining, Jorgensen did the same
to cut the lead to 62-60.
But after Christina Randall
missed the front end of a one-end-
DeMarchi said this contest was
characteristic of past meetings be¬
tween the two teams.
I "They always tend to be a little
close." she said.
Track teams favored to win WAC
Men ranked fifth in
the nation in pre¬
season poll; women
ranked 11th
By Robbie Miner
Staffwriter   (~
After finishing the 1992 sea¬
son ranked in the Top 20 for the
tenth straight year, Fresno State
track finally convinced the NCAA
to move its program into one of the
nation's premier conferences-the
WAC.
FSU ended a glorious reign in
the Big West conference last sea¬
son, which was characterized by
ten straight men's conference chair -
pionships from 1983-1992 and
women's tides in four of the last six
years. The Bulldogs performed up
to expectations in their first year in
the WAC in 1993, giving national
powers B YU and UTEP a serious
run for their money. .   •
"BYU won the WAC for both
men and women, and Texas-El Paso
nudged our guys out for second
place in the relays- the very last
event of the meet," said coach Bob
Fraley, in reference to last year's
indoor championships. The women
also finished third.
Now that the Bulldogs have
gotten their feet wet in the WAC
and die intimidation factor is gone,
FSU is poised to conquer the'new
league like they dominated the Big
West conference for so many years.
"We're right in the thick of
things," said Fraley.' "We have a
very good team."   9
If die pre-season polls are any
indication, Fraley \s not lying. The
Indoor Tracked Field Nielson Poll
ranks the men'fifth in the nation
and die women-11th. As coach
Fraley points out however, these
polls can' be deceiving.
''I don't read into these polls
too much, because they don't take
into consideration all die JC trans¬
fers or foreigners that have yet lobe
added to teams' rosters. UTEP will
.unquestionably be one of the best
teams this year, but they're not
even ranked."
Nevertheless, one can' t help to
be optimistic about the polls. If
these ratings were to accurately,
predict the season, the men would
win the WAC and the women would
place second behind B¥U. The
women Cougars are ranked #1.
The men will return two All-
Americans and two other national
indoor qualifiers this season, as they
make a run for their first WAC •
champio#hip.
As only a sophomore^ in 1993,
David Cox placed fifth in the NCAA
Indoor Championships by clearing
the unheralded ! 8-foot mark. Ac¬
tually, Cox's mark was good
enough for a share of the national
championship, as, he was one of
five vauiters who finished with a
high vault of 18-0 and a half inch.
Robert Fogter also-received
All-American honors in his first
season, with Bulldogs after
transtwmg from Porterville JC.
Foster qualified for nationals with
an absolutely dominating peribr-
mance in the WAC finals. The New
York native captured both the 55
hurdle and long jump champion¬
ships and totaled 24 points in three
events. His performance earned him
the WAC Male Athlete ofthe Year
award. Earlier in the season, Foster
shattered former world record
bolder Ancel Robinson s school
record in the 55 HH, with a time of
7.26.. *
Terry Eo wen and Keith Jones,
NCAA qualifiers in die 55 meter
dash and 35 lb. weight class also
add depth to the 1994 men's team.
The men in'94 will be stacked
with talent in the sprints and jumps.
Fraley ItstedFoster, Bowen, Waylin
Bratton. Kendall Hoggatt, Robert
House, and true freshmen
DeWayne Thomas and Derrick
Mitchell as athletes that could do
serious damage in conference fi¬
nals this year.
"Robert House could qualify
for nationals and DeWayne (Tho¬
mas) and Derrick (Mitchell) have
really surprised me so far," said
Fraley.
If the men are deep in the
sprints and jumps, then the women
are drowning In depth.
200 and 400-meter sprinter
See Track, page 11