Tarkanian Delivers First Win to Fresno : College basketball: Northridge no match for the Bulldogs, who pull away, 97-77.

Jerry Tarkanian didn’t come out of retirement for money or for glory, but to bring winning basketball to Fresno State, his alma mater.

He did it. For one night anyway.

Tarkanian’s Bulldogs beat Cal State Northridge, 97-77, on Tuesday night in Selland Arena, giving the coach his first victory at the school where he played in 1954 and 1955.

“It’s nice,” Tarkanian said. “I had a few wins here when I was at UNLV, but it’s really nice to win one for Fresno State.”

The victory was a relief to the 9,525 red-clad fans who came to the game, many of whom had no doubt watched Tarkanian’s disappointing debut--an embarrassing 102-86 loss to Weber State in the preseason National Invitation Tournament two weeks ago.

To tell how happy the fans were, you only had to look up to see the 80-plus decibel readings on the “Tark Meter.” Or look at the concession stand, where Phil Luna was selling a variety of “Shark” merchandise.

“Everything you put a shark on is selling,” Luna said.

The selection includes, of course, Shark Towels (though waving them is preferred to chewing on them), a variety of foam shark fins, and even a foam shark that actually chomps. There are T-shirts with cartoon illustrations of sharks dunking basketballs.

That was how the game went too, with Fresno State players dunking over the shorter and less athletic Matadors (0-2). As a result, Tarkanian spent most of the game looking as he did when one of his powerhouse Nevada Las Vegas teams was in the middle of what must have seemed like their billionth consecutive victory over, say, San Jose State.

For most of Tuesday night’s game, Tarkanian was calmly standing in front of the bench with his hands plunged into his pockets. Or he was leaning back in his chair with his hands folded on top of his head, as if he were watching the game on television.

But Tarkanian, whose standards are based on 19 successive winning seasons at UNLV, still needed to go into his towel-sucking-and-foot-stomping routine a few times.

“We have a long ways to go,” he said. “We are still not real smooth yet.”

Despite the periodic struggles of his team, Tarkanian was relieved to pick up the victory. Not only did he have two weeks to stew over the loss to Weber State, but he has been dealing with eligibility questions of three of his players.

“We’re all done with November, right?” Tarkanian said. “This has been the worst November of my career.”

There was little question the Bulldogs would win this one. Northridge was able to hang with Fresno State for about 12 minutes, holding several two-or three-point leads in the early going.

But eventually the Bulldogs took over, finishing off the first half with a 22-2 run that sent them to the locker room with a 44-27 lead.

The primary weapons for Fresno were Kendric Brooks, who scored 28 points on seven-for-12 three-point shooting, and 6-foot-10 forward Rahsaan Smith, who scored 21 points.

Northridge got strong play again from junior college transfer Damion Morbley, who scored 17 points. Gerald Rhoden added 22 points, including four-for-eight shooting from three-point range.

But Northridge’s main problem was poor shooting. The Matadors shot 39%.