Titans’ Best Is Not Enough, 61-56 : Fullerton Comes Close Before Losing Again to Las Vegas

Cal State Fullerton did Thursday night what any team would hope to do. It saved its best for its last. It just happened that Fullerton’s best wasn’t quite enough against Nevada Las Vegas.

Fullerton trailed, 58-56, with less than a minute to play, but Henry Turner missed a 17-foot jump shot with 36 seconds left, and top-seeded UNLV held on for a 61-56 victory in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tournament quarterfinal game at the Forum.

The victory was the 27th of the season for the seventh-ranked Rebels and the 500th of Coach Jerry Tarkanian’s career.

It wasn’t one of the easy ones.

Tarkanian, who is 500-104 in 20 seasons, coached at Cal State Long Beach for five years before going to UNLV.

Fullerton was ahead by as many as five points in the second half before UNLV came storming back.

Fullerton led, 43-40, when Turner was called for an offensive foul, his fourth. That call sent the Fullerton bench into an uproar that ended with a technical foul being called on Coach George McQuarn.

UNLV’s Clint Rossum made both free throws, and then Jarvis Basnight scored and was fouled on the awarded possession. He made the free throw, giving UNLV a 45-43 lead, its first of the second half. Next thing Fullerton knew, Karl James had added a three-pointer, and UNLV led, 48-43, with about 10 minutes to play.

For the Titans (12-17), losing to UNLV in the PCAA tournament has become a familiar scenario. The Rebels have eliminated the Titans in each of the past three years, twice in the semifinals and in the 1985 championship game.

“It seems like it’s been UNLV as long as I can remember,” McQuarn said.

None of Fullerton’s previous three PCAA tournament losses to UNLV had been close. The worst was a 99-65 blowout in a semifinal game last year, and the closest was by 10 points.

Fullerton has had little success against UNLV outside of the tournament, as well, except for a stunning 86-78 upset of the then No. 1 and undefeated Rebels in 1983.

Since then, Fullerton has lost 14 straight.

UNLV jumped out to an eight-point lead 10 minutes into the game, taking a 20-12 lead on a three-pointer by Gerald Paddio.

But the Titans’ Richard Morton, who scored 18 points in the first half, including four of six three-pointers, cut the lead to five on a three-pointer with nine minutes left. UNLV pushed it back to a seven-point lead, but then Fullerton scored eight straight points, taking a 27-26 lead on a steal and layup by Eugene Jackson with six minutes left.

UNLV’s Richard Robinson made two straight baskets to give the Rebels a 30-27 lead.

But Fullerton tied it on a three-pointer by Morton, and two minutes later, the Titans took a three-point lead on another Morton three-pointer.

Fullerton took that 33-30 lead into the locker room at halftime.

UNLV struggled to beat the Titans in the teams’ first meeting this season but pulled out a 63-57 victory after Henry Turner missed a shot that would have given Fullerton a lead with slightly more than 10 seconds left. The Rebels won the second game of the season easily, 77-61.

The game Thursday night was just the latest example of UNLV’s dominance of the PCAA. In the six years since joining the conference, the Rebels have won the regular-season title six times. In the PCAA tournament, they are 15-1, including this victory over Fullerton.

The only time UNLV has lost in the PCAA tournament was in the 1984 title game, to Fresno State, 51-49.

Four PCAA teams--New Mexico State, Pacific, San Jose State and Utah State--have never beaten UNLV in any game, regular-season or tournament.

UNLV (27-4) plays UC Irvine at 7 tonight in a semifinal game. Irvine, the tournament’s fifth-seeded team, beat fourth-seeded Long Beach in a quarterfinal game Thursday. Utah State, seeded second, plays third-seeded UC Santa Barbara at 9 p.m.