Fullerton Beats Fresno at Buzzer, 56-54 : Titans Will Face Nevada Las Vegas in PCAA Tournament Final

Four of the last five times Cal State Fullerton and Fresno State have met on a basketball court, the game has been decided on the last shot.

Friday night’s Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. semifinal matchup ran true to form on a final shot that was fired at the last possible moment.

After playing a nearly flawless second half, Fullerton saw a five-point margin evaporate. Fresno State’s Mitch Arnold rattled home a 15-foot jumper to tie the score, 54-54, with 10 seconds remaining.

Kevin Henderson brought the ball upcourt for the Titans and forced up an 18-foot jumper that hit the heel of the rim and bounded over a crowd of players. Henderson followed the shot and grabbed the rebound near the baseline, jumped, twisted and made a short jumper as the horn sounded to lift Fullerton to a 56-54 upset in front of 13,193 at the Forum.

The shot appeared to be late on television replays, but all three officials on the floor immediately indicated it counted.

“We just had to find a way to win,” Henderson said. “I’m ecstatic.”

Fullerton (17-12) will play Nevada Las Vegas, which slipped past San Jose State, 60-59, in Friday’s first semifinal game, for the tournament championship at 2 p.m. today. Fresno State is 21-8.

There’s one thing to can be sure of: The scarlet-clad UNLV fans weren’t the only ones breathing sighs of relief after Friday’s cliff-hanger. Not that the PCAA officials are against the conference underdogs, but they’d much rather the Forum was red than dead for today’s final.

Now, they’re hoping some of the estimated 5,000 Fresno fans will hang around to root against the hated Runnin’ Rebels.

“We’re playing exceptionally well right now and I thought going into the game we could and would play this way,” Fullerton Coach George McQuarn said.

The Titan trio of Henderson (12 points), Tony Neal (20) and Kerry Boagni (19) scored all but three of Fullerton’s second-half points.

Boagni, a streak shooter whose lapses have usually lasted longer than his hot flashes, kept the Titans in the game in the first half with some long-range jump shoots. He scored 12 points--including a pair of three-point baskets--in a nine-minute span midway through the first half.

But Fullerton was unable to pull away from the the doggedly deliberate Bulldogs. The Titans got their biggest lead of the first half when Boagni dropped in a baseline 17-footer off the fast break, giving Fullerton a 22-20 margin with 4:44 left before the intermission.

Fresno State, controlling the tempo and the backboards most of the time, was also playing the kind of defense that made it No. 1 in the country in scoring defense this year. The Titans didn’t score again in the half and the Bulldogs took a 24-22 advantage into the locker room.

Neal, a catalyst to Fullerton’s inside game, had nine first-half rebounds to keep the Fresno State front line--Jos Kuipers, Scott Barnes and Fred Emerson--from owning the boards.

Henderson took over where Boagni left off in the opening minutes of the second half. He hit two 18-foot jumpers and two free throws in the first two minutes. Neal added a three-point play--the old-fashioned kind--and Fullerton had a 31-27 lead with 17:06 left to play.

Fresno was beginning to penetrate the Titan defense--the Bulldogs scored 10 of 12 points in one stretch on layups--but either Neal, Boagni and Henderson (who picked up his fourth foul midway through the half) answered every Fresno basket to silence the vociferous Red Wave until the final minutes.

In Friday night’s first semifinal matchup, San Jose State, generally considered to be one year away from being a conference title contender, almost became the PCAA’s team of 1985.

The Spartans, who breezed past Utah State in the first round of the tournament, gave Nevada Las Vegas (ranked 10th and 11th in the wire service polls) all it could handle before dropping the one-point decision to the Rebels.

San Jose State had a one-point lead with four seconds left when UNLV guard Freddie Banks put up a 21-footer. The Spartans’ Michael Dixon waved an arm at Banks but didn’t appear to make contact. Referee Tom Harrington saw it differently, though, and called a foul. Banks made two free throws to give the Rebels the victory.

“I really don’t think I fouled him,” Dixon said, “but I was much too close for a shot like that . . . they had to beat us, I was too close. But I didn’t feel any contact.”

Banks said Dixon hit him in the “thigh.”

The Spartans were already a leg up when Las Vegas’ Richie Adams, who repeated as PCAA Player of the Year this season, committed three fouls in the first three minutes and didn’t play again in the first half. He fouled out with five minutes remaining in the game, leaving with just seven points and two rebounds.

The smaller Spartans dominated the boards, outrebounding UNLV, 37-24, thanks primarily to forward Stony Evans (11 rebounds) and 6-1 guard Ward Farris, who grabbed 9 rebounds and led San Jose State with 19 points.