With a Little Magic, Fullerton Upsets UNLV

It was either going to be the worst moment of Aaron Sunderland’s basketball career or the best. The Cal State Fullerton point guard had the ball, the emotion and No. 16 Nevada Las Vegas in his hands with the game tied, the clock ticking away, 11 seconds, 10, nine . . .

He drove the lane, and the ball was flicked out of his hands. Time froze. The ball bounced. Sunderland somehow grabbed it, stepped to the left corner of the free throw line, let fly and . . .

Swish.

Fullerton, 84-83, for only the third time in the 33-game series history between these two teams--and the first time since 1989.

A swarm from the crowd of 4,128 immediately mobbed the floor and, for five excruciating minutes, things froze again.

There was one second left.

But on this emotional evening, there was no way the magic was going to fade away. UNLV’s Evric Gray inbounded the ball with a baseball pass to Dedan Thomas, who turned and missed badly.

In front of the the largest crowd in Titan Gym since the UNLV game during the 1990-1991 season, the Titans (15-11, 10-8) had pulled it off. Picked to finish ninth in the conference in a preseason poll, they finish tied for fifth and will open Big West Conference tournament play against Cal State Long Beach at 9 p.m. Friday.

Sunderland, after going zero for 15 from the field against New Mexico State on Thursday, learned that sometimes, only one shot matters.

“I had to come back and redeem myself,” said Sunderland, who had made only 17% of his shots (six for 36) during the past three games. “The coaches were telling me, ‘Aaron, the shot will come. You’re too good a player.’ ”

Said Fullerton Coach Brad Holland: “(The clutch shot) shows a lot of character on Aaron’s part. He felt as bad as anyone. If he was even five for 15, we probably have a chance to beat New Mexico State.”

J.R. Rider, after being held to seven points by Bruce Bowen the last time these two teams played, punched in with his usual evening: thundering to the basket like a tornado and whirling around the court like an octopus on wheels.

He finished with a game-high 32 points, and nearly lifted the Rebels (20-6, 13-5) to victory alone. Dexter Boney added 27 for the Rebels.

Don Leary and Sean Williams had 21 apiece for Fullerton, and Bruce Bowen added 18.

Sunderland finished with 14 points, seven assists and one lifetime memory.

“Coach told me in the huddle (Fullerton had called time out with 19 seconds left) that he was going to call ‘fist’,” Sunderland said, referring to a play designed to clear out and let him drive the lane. “He told me to go to work, to go strong to the hole. I fumbled it out of my left hand, but Dexter Boney fumbled it, too.

“I picked up the ball, shot, and it went in.”

Said forward Kim Kemp: “That’s his favorite shot, coming into the lane. I knew it was going to go down as soon as it left his hand.”

The place was so crazy afterward that, somehow, Sunderland was lost in the crowd. A mass of fans carried Kemp off the floor on their shoulders.

“Oh, man, it was like I wasn’t there,” Kemp said. “It was like a dream. They were trying to take off my jersey, everything.”

As for why they grabbed him instead of Sunderland, Kemp had no explanation.

“I don’t know,” Kemp said. “I was running off of the court. All of a sudden, before I knew it, I was in the air.”

And UNLV was on its way home--quickly. A fan charged Coach Rollie Massimino during the chaos with one second remaining, and the Rebel coach fired one salvo before he left, calling the crowd control a “disgrace.”

Fullerton seemed in deep trouble at the beginning of the second half, when the Titans were outscored, 10-1, by a UNLV team on its way to a 59-50 lead.

Fullerton didn’t get its first second-half basket until Don Leary nailed a three-pointer with 15:21 left to bring Fullerton to within six, 59-53.

Until Leary’s basket, it was a UNLV highlight show. Rider scored, Gray dunked, and then Rider made a free throw and hit a three-pointer.

On and on it went, until Leary kicked Fullerton into gear. The Titans clawed back and finally took the lead, 79-78, on another Leary three-pointer with 4 minutes to play.

While the Rebels led most of the second half, they led only five times--and by no more than two--during a first half played at race-horse pace. Fullerton tied the game, 49-49, on a three-foot put-back by Williams that barely beat the first-half buzzer.

Spurred by a crowd that spent most of the half on its feet, it was as intense a 20 minutes as the Titans have played in two months.

The 49 Fullerton points were second only to the 50 the Titans scored in the second half against St. Mary’s earlier this season. Bowen led the way with 14.