1996_12 The Daily Collegian December 1996

              iHE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Monday, December 2,1996
Sports Editor: Tom Sepulveda
Telephone: (209) 278-5733
Men's soccer moves up in NCAA tournament
Paul Martinez — The Daily Collegian
Fresno State men's soccer upset Washington on Saturday, advancing to the third round of the
NCAA tournament.
Bulldogs blast Liberty for
Coors Light Classic title
By David Childers
The Daily Collegian
Fresno State head coach Jerry
Tarkanian knew he was sitting
on an offensive powder keg. but
the Bulldogs had come up with
nothing but sluggish offensive
performances all season.
The players knew,it too. So
did the fans. So did Liberty
coach Jeff Meyer. But nobody
was really convinced until tbe
second half of a 84-44 win. and
the first Coors Light Classic title
for the host since 1993.
"I don't know what Jerry
[Tarkanian] said to them at half
time." Meyer said. "But it cer¬
tainly got their attention and they
came out and played at a differ¬
ent level in the second half."
The second half was the re¬
alization of the offensive expec¬
tations that had been looming
over the Bulldogs since long be¬
fore the season started. The
three-point shot was there, along
with the penetration and die easy
baskets that Tarkanian and com¬
pany knew would come eventu¬
ally.
"We have yet to put together
two halves." said sophomore
Terrance Roberson. an All-Tour¬
nament selection. "We are sup¬
posed to be doing that in the first
half."
Early on in the first half, it
looked like Fresno State's offen¬
sive woes were history. Center
Rahsaan Smith, another All-
Tournament selection, took a
breathtaking alley-oop pass
from Roberson off the fast break
through,'
Chris Herren
game that your outstanding fans
here wouldn't think too highly of."
From there on. that description
fit pretty aptly. About seven min¬
utes after the alley-oop. Liberty
used a lay-up by Marcus White to,
take a 13-11 lead.
"If you're going to have a
chance tosteal one, this is the way
you're going to have to do it," said
Meyer. "Just keep the giant sleep¬
ing."
The Bulldogs did not slumber
long. Kendric Brooks hit a three-
pointer to end the drought, and the
offense got rolling late — putting
up 10 points in the final four min¬
utes of the half.
"I thought in the second half wc
came out and played great, great de¬
fense." Tarkanian said. "We got
some fast breaks going and we
started shooting freely. I thought we
got better shots in the second half
and that's why we played better."
A big reason for the offensive
explosion was the emergence of
Chris Herren. After suffering a con¬
cussion early in Fresno State's win
over Northeastern on Friday.
Herren was originally listed as
questionable for Saturday's match¬
up with Liberty.
"(Herren] had a chance to break
Kendric
Brooks
he s been
uptight a
little   bit
and that's
under¬
standable.
I hope the
second
half tonight will turn him loose."
Herren scored  17 of his
team's and career-high 22 points
in the second half, and was re¬
warded with a place on the Bull¬
dog-dominated All-Tournament
team.
"It was a very comfortable
game for me." said Herren. "I
felt like I was in the flow of the
game from the very beginning.
I was finally getting some lay-
ups to fall."
Dominick Young, who added
four mree-pointers to his season
total, finished with 12 points and
was named Tournament Most
Valuable Player. He broke a
tournament record with 12 steals
in two games. *
Not counting Tuesday's visit
by Division II Western, all ques¬
tions now surround a marathon
road trip that will have the Bull¬
dogs playing 10 games and not
returning to Selland Arena until
Jan.11.
'The real key is if we can do
this on the road." said Tarkanian.
"It is so much harder to press on
the road. That's what we hope
to do — we hope to play that
type of pressure defense."
By Luis Hernandez
The Daily Collegian
The worst possible scenario hap¬
pened to the Fresno State men's
soccer team in its second round
match against the Washington Hus¬
kies yesterday. The Bulldogs were
playing on ^^^^^^^^^^
the road,
one man
down and
trailing by
one goal at
halftime.
Not to
worry. The
Bulldogs
had    been
there   be-    	
fore. "This
is the third time this year that we've
been a man down — and a goal
d6wn — and have come back to
win the game," John Bluem, Fresno
State men's soccer coach, said.
The Bulldogs scored twice in the
second half to come back and earn
a 2-1 second-round NCAA tourna¬
ment victory over Washington at
North Creek Complex.
Mike Matson, Fresno Stale for¬
ward, scored the game's winning
goal at the 53rd minute of play
when he put in a rebound after
Steve Patterson had taken a penalty
shot but his shot hit the crossbars.
One minute earlier, the Bulldogs
_<>m_i^^_^^^^^     had tied up
the   score
when
Patterson
himself
beat
VvbfhingkTi's
goalkeeper.
It        was
Patterson's
16th goal
 of the sca-
s o n .
Sophomore Craig Tomlinson was
credited with an assist.
The Huskies had opened the
rcoring in the 9th minute of play.
Washington's Ress Bettinger scored
off a corner kick.
"I felt we still had a chance to
Please see SOCCER page 7
"This is the third time this
year that we've been a
man down — and a goal
down — and have come
back to win the game."
— John Bluem
Fresno Stale Men's Soccer Coach
Fresno State golf
team finishes season
with third place win
By Luis Hernnadez
The Daily Collegian
The Fresno State golf team fin¬
ished its fall season grabbing a third
place at the Rice/Columbia Lakes
Invitational over the weekend. The
tournament gathered 20 team's
Sophomore Matt Christensen
and Junior Mike McGuire led the
Bulldogs' charge with a Top 20 fin¬
ish for each.
Christensen shot a 224 in the
three-day event to tie for 14th place.
For his Part. McGuire shot a 225 to
tie for 18th place.
In the final day of competition,
as a team the Bulldogs, shot a 305
to improve their position from sev¬
enth to third.
"It was an O.K. finish.   Mike
Watney. Fresno State golf coach,
said. "It was a good day in that we
moved up from seventh to third, but
we were still disappointed that we
did not finish second or first."
Complementing the score for the
Bulldogs, Josh Watney shot a 229;
Mattias Ringman shot 232 and
Danny Paniccia shot a 234.
The Rice University Owls took
first place in teams' competition.
Oral Roberts University's Fred
Wickman shot a 217 to sucessfully
retain his title.
The tournament concluded the
Bulldogs' fall season. They will re¬
sume competition when they take
part in the Ping/Arizona Invita¬
tional Feb. 3-4. 1997.
Women's volleyball
closes conference play,
falls to San Diego
By Luis Hernandez
The Daily Collegian
The Fresno State volleyball team
finished its participation in the
Western Athletic Conference tour¬
nament with a 500 record.
, The San Diego Aztecs defeated
the Bulldogs 15-12,16-14 and 15-
10 in the second round of the tour¬
nament at the MGM Grand Garden.
Wednesday, Nov. 27.
With this result, the Bulldogs'
record for the season dropped to
22-10.
"This was the best we've played
San Diego State in years," Lindy
Vivas. ^Fresno State's volleyball
coach, said. We did play good vol¬
leyball, but it is disappointing that
.ii resulted in a loss."
Despite the defeat. Vivas was
happy with her outside hitters' per¬
formance.
Please see V-BALL page 7