1994_03 The Daily Collegian March 1994

              Pay 6
Monday, March 14,1994
NTT next for Fresno State
BYU beats FSU
87-72 in Friday's
WAC Tournament
semi-finals
*S*"
Brett Papa
THECOLLEGIAN
*
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah —
Despite Carl Ray Harris' show-
stopping performance, Fresno
State's NCAA Tournament hopes
ended Friday night at the hands of
Brigham Young in a 87-72 loss in
the Western Athletic Conference
Tournamentsemi-finals at the Delta
Center. .  j
The Bulldogs did receive an in¬
vitation to the National Intercolle¬
giate Tournament Fresno State will
host University of Southern Cali¬
fornia Wednesday night at Selland
Arena at 9 p.m.
The game will be nationally tele¬
vised on ESFR USC finished tied
for sixth in the Pacific Ten with a 9-
9 record and 16-11 record overall.
The last time the Bulldogs went
to a postseason tournament was in
1985 when they lost to UCLA in
the first round of the NIT. The
Bulldogs won the NIT Champion¬
ship in 1983, beating DePaul 69-60
at the Madison Square Garden.
, In the loss to BYU, Harris scored
23 first half points as the Bulldogs
led 37-35. However, the Cougars
held Harris to just eight second half
Sports Information/ Rte Photo
' Senior Carl Ray Harris wW aoar for free no State at least one mora
□me in me mi lourameni, wnicn rani neaneeoay.
points as BYU outscored FSU 52-
35 in the second half to advance to
the finals. v .
Hawaii, who beat No. 1 seeded
New Mexico in the other semi¬
final, upset the Cougars 73-66 on
Saturday night Hawaii and New
Mexico were the only two schools
from the WAC to receive an invita¬
tion to the NCAA. Championship
Tournament.
Bulldog coach Gary Colson
called the Harris performance the
best he has ever seen. Harris war
the only Bulldog named to the
WAC's All-Tournament team.
"Carl Ray put on a show (Friday
night] like noone I haveever seen,"
Colson said. "All the guys gave it
everything they got."
San Diego State too
strong for Bulldogs
By Brett Pape
THECOLLEGIAN
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah-
Chalk up the 1993-94 season up to
experience.   1. . •
- With just one senior and play¬
ing under first year head coach
Linda Wander, the Fresno State
women's basketball team ad¬
vanced to the Western Athletic
Conference Tournament semi-fi¬
nals before falling to San Diego
State 73Jr53, Friday afternoon at
the Delta Center.
San Diego State, who won the
regular season title with a 13-1
league record, beat Colorado State
51-47 in the conference final. The
tournament champion ship was the
first ever for the Aztecs.
The Bulldogs (13-15) played
San Diego State tough earl y in the
game, leading 10-8 with 14 min¬
utes and 31 seconds remaining in
the opening half.
However, the Aztecs outscored
the Bulldogs 31-12 the rest of the
half to take a 39-22 halftime lead. .
During that span the Aztecs
pressure defense caused the Bull¬
dogs to commit seven turnovers.-.
Fresno State had 11 first half turn¬
overs.
The loss to the Aztecs was the
third for FSU this season. The
Bulldogs lost by 25 points in both
of their pre vious meetings.
"I thought we came out with.
the right game plan,'.' said Wunder.
"We came out in the first half very
aggressively."
Wunder said that San Diego
State's defense took the Bulldogs
out of their game. *_
They did a great job of taking
everything away from us that we
tried to do,** Wunder said. "We
ran into a snowball effect.. They
seemed to capitalize on every mis¬
take we made.'* <*
In the second half the Bulldogs
committed only five turnovers and
were able to play almost even
with the Aztecs. San Diego State
outscored Fresno State 34-31 in
the half.
"We played well in the second
half,'* Wunder said. "Unfortu¬
nately you. need to put together
two halves for the whole 40-
minutegame.
The Bulldogs were led by their
senior point guard Suzanne
Zahasky. The Bulldogs' sole se¬
nior scored 16 points and had a
game high five assists.
Zahasky also scored 16 points
in the quarterfinal win over Wyo¬
ming. She was named to the all-
tournament team.
A11-WA€^ player Kari
Jorgensen added 12 points.
^hile the Bulldogs finished
two games under .500, FSU ap¬
pears to be headed in the right
direction under Wunder. The
See Bulldogs, page 7
'
Johnny Quick Classic begins at Beiden today
>••
oy noDOW Minor
THECOLLEGIAN
•■
For all baseball fanatics out there
who are counting the hours until
opening day to major league base¬
ball, the Fresno State Bulldogs have
a sure cure to speed up the time.
FSU's annual Pepsi/ Johnny
Quick Classic starts this morning
at Beiden Field with a 10a.m. game
matching Maine and Illinois State.
The action will continue all day,
every day, untihUhe tournament
concludes Saturday night at 7 p.m.
with the championship game.
The tournament features eight
teams divided into two divisions
with divisional play on Monday,
. Tuesday and Wednesday and cross-
divisional play On Thursday and
Friday.
Fresno State will play in the Red
- Division against Maine. Illinois
State and Kentucky, who they battle
• tonight at 7.p.m. The Blue Division
includes Wasmngton State, Ne¬
vada, New Mexko and Nebraska.
'J, "Tbecoinpetitionisprobablythe
(■ best in the country," said FSU coach
Bob Bennett. "We've got a smatter-
ing of teams from all over. Maine's
oneof the best in their part of the
• country and Kentucky, in theirs."
> The Bulldogs could have their
toughest challenge of the week to¬
day when they face the Wildcats.
Kentucky, who advanced to the
NCAA Tournament last season for
the first time since 1988. received a
No. 15 preseason ranking by Base¬
ball America. No Kentucky team
had ever received a higher ranking
mite history.
The Wildcats return six starting
position players, including AU-SEC
selection Eddie Brooks, who led
the team in 1993 with 14 HR's and
hit .342, while play i ng second base.
Catcher Brad Hindersman (.366
BAV.. 56 RBI's) and center fielder
Jeff Abbott, who missed the entire
1993 season with mononucleiosis
after being named All-SEC in 1992,
also add punch to Kentucky's po¬
tent lineup. In all, seven players
return who hit .300 or better last
Brian Reed is expected to match
up tonight against senior Jared
Fernandez in the tournament
opener. Reed recorded a 6-2 record
with a 3.83 earned run average and
had the sixth best strikeout to nine
inning ratio in the country last year.
"It would really give us a push
to beat a good Kentucky team,**
said Bennett. "That would,give us
three to four teams now near the top
that we've
Here's a breakdown of the rest
of Fresno State's competition in
the tournament:
Maine-Whereas Kentucky re¬
turns seven starters* in the field,
Maine loses seven. No active player
on Maine's lineup has more than
11 homeruns and much of the pitch¬
ing has left, as well. Nevertheless,
the Black Bears returned to its ninth
NCAA Regional since 1980 last
season, and this year return North
Atlantic Conference Pitcher of the
Year Mark Ballard. Ballard fin¬
ished 1993 with shoulder problems,
but also with an 8-3 record and a
2.67 ERA.
niinnkSft*. The Redbirds will
rely on the strength of their pitch¬
ing staff this week, as they return
nine pitchers, who accounted for
more than 90 percent of their starts,
innings, wins and strikeouts last
season. Since all teams must play
on six consecutive days, the Red-
birds' pitchingdepthcould become
a major factor.
Nebraska- Junior pitcher/desig¬
nated hitter Troy Brohawn and
sophomore left fielder Darin Erstad
will be two players to keep an eye
on this weekBrohawn, a first-team
AD America selection at pitcher
and last year's Pepsi/Johnny Quick.
ClassicjMVP, was a perfect 13-0 of the Year candidates. Brunstad,
on the mound and hit'^ at the the senior first baseman, paced the
plate. Erstad hit.339 with 10 HR's    teamtobettingaverage(.373),HR'g
and 54 RBI's last year.
Last season, the Cornhuskers
finished with a Maze, winning 23
of their final 30 games.
Mcyada- In their first season in
the Big West last year, the Wolf
Pack lost seven of their 21 games,
but were 17-5-1 in non-conference
games. The key for Nevada, like
Illinois, could be the depth of their
pitching staff .
NfiW Mexico- First-team All-
American Antonio Fernandez leads
this year's New Mexico squad.
Fernandez, a legitimate Player of
the Year candidate for 1994, had a
.430 average and .620 slugging
percentage in 1993. The third
baseman also compiled a 23-game
errorless streak. ,m Senior
centerfielder Kenny Copeland (.350
BAV. in 1993) also sparks UNM
both offensively and defensively.
i etui us forfa
the head coachof Washington State
University. Brayton ranks sixth all-
timein baseball Divsion I wins wkh
1,127. He has only lost 497 games.
The squad will be led by co-
captains Kevin Breasted and Mike
Kinkade, two Pac-10 North Player
(8) and RBI's (67). Kinkade hit
364 and drove jn 47 runs, despite
seeing limited action, because of
shoulder surgery.
The Johnny Quick Classic has
featured seme of baseball's pre*
mier players in the past. Names like
Pendleton, Olerud, Benes, Joyner
and Knoblauch have displayed their
talents in previous classics. Win
names like Kinkade, Fernandez and
Brohawn star in the Big Show in
the future? This week will be a
great chance to see for yourself
who has and who hasn't got what it
takes to make it in the big leagues.
Fresno State enters tournament
play today with a 9-12 record, but
two of three wins last weekend
against Sacramento State has given
the Bulldogs an optimistic start to
the WAC season.
"All these other things we've
done is like spring training," said
Bennett. "We're through with
spring training; now we have to get
after the real stuff.
"We're much better now than a
week ago, feeling-wise about our¬
selves. We still aren't all the way
back offensively, but we're'com¬
ing through in the clutch now."
■ V: