Harmon Hoping History Repeats

Boise State will be Cal State Fullerton’s opponent in the Big West Conference men’s basketball tournament Thursday, and that’s fine with the Titans’ Ike Harmon.

The Broncos have the conference’s top player in Roberto Bergersen and they might be its best team, but Harmon says he likes the Titans’ chances.

“I thought we played one of our best games of the season against Boise,” Harmon said.

The Titans lost on the road, 67-66, but it easily could have gone the other way. Titan guard Kenroy Jarrett had a 12-foot shot in the final seconds, but it rimmed out, giving the Broncos the victory. Jarrett thought he was fouled on the play, though nothing was called.

Bergersen’s two free throws with five seconds left put Boise State ahead after Jarrett had made two free throws with 11 seconds to play.

“We seem to match up well against them,” Harmon said. “And I think we could do even better against them with the bigger lineup we’ve been using lately.” That lineup has Harmon at small forward with Mark Richardson and Matt Caldwell inside. Caldwell suffered a bruised hip and a sprained ankle against Santa Barbara, but he is expected to play Thursday.

Harmon scored 21 points in the earlier game against the Broncos. That was four more than Bergersen, the Big West scoring leader, had in the game. Bergersen has been slowed by a strained knee recently, but the injury is not regarded as serious.

“Harmon played awfully well in that game,” Boise State Coach Rod Jensen said. “Ike can go inside, or play outside and do well.”

Harmon said his quickness has been an advantage against Boise State in the past. “If they put a smaller player on me, I’ll take him inside, and if they put a bigger guy on me I’ll take him outside,” Harmon said.

The Titans lost to Boise State, 76-74, last year in the regular season, when Bergersen made a last-second, 18-foot shot to win it, but the Titans came back to defeat the Broncos, 89-82, in the conference tournament.

Harmon hopes the same thing will happen this week. “They’re a good team, and it will be a tough test for us, but nobody in the Big West is head and shoulders above anyone else,” he said.

Harmon said he wasn’t at his best last week when the Titans lost home games to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Barbara. “I think it might have been food poisoning earlier in the week,” he said. “I ate on Tuesday and then I couldn’t eat much of anything again until Friday. I felt a step slower because of that.”

Harmon, however, had 22 points against San Luis Obispo and 19 against Santa Barbara.

“We just didn’t put a whole game together in either game,” Harmon said. “Maybe our anxiety level was too high. It seemed like we were all trying to get it done with one shot instead of taking what came to us.”

FOREIGN RECRUIT

Fullerton expects to get a boost next season with the signing of Patrick Ceresa from Vacallo, Switzerland. Ceresa is a 6-foot-8, 240-pound power forward who had been recruited by UCLA last summer.

“UCLA had offered him a scholarship and he originally had committed to them,” Titan Coach Bob Hawking said. “But they apparently ran into some problems getting him into school there last fall.”

A UCLA athletic department spokesman said Monday that Ceresa did not meet UCLA’s entrance requirements.

Hawking said Ceresa came to Los Angeles last summer to play in the summer leagues, hoping to put himself in position for a scholarship.

“He played all over Southern California and did well,” Hawking said. “But after UCLA offered him a scholarship, several other schools that were interested dropped off him.”

Hawking said Ceresa has not yet been admitted to Fullerton. “But we don’t expect it to be a problem,” Hawking said. The Titans still have one scholarship available.

PROMISING PITCHING

The Titan softball team is 7-5 after playing in tournaments in Hawaii and San Diego, and Coach Judi Garman has been encouraged by the pitching.

Freshman Christy Robitaille, a former Woodbridge player, has gotten off to a good start.

“She’s done an excellent job,” Garman said. “She’s shown a lot of poise and has been a real bright spot for us. We ran into a difficult umpiring situation in San Diego. She was called for 10 walks, but she kept her poise and we ended up winning the game.”

Robitaille is 1-1 with a 2.15 earned-run average. Jana Oetgen is 4-3 with a 3.27 ERA, and Kati Franck is 1-0 with an 0.60 ERA in 11 innings pitched. Frank was a redshirt last season because of a shoulder injury.

“Kati has been effective after having surgery, but she’s not ready to go very long right now,” Garman said.

Rachel Olvera, the Titans’ regular center fielder the last two seasons, is out for the rest of this season because of a torn knee ligament.

WRESTLERS QUALIFY

Three Titan wrestlers have qualified for the NCAA championships March 18-20 at Penn State.

Joey Coughran and Jason Webster each finished second and Babak Nejadmaghaddam was fourth in the Pac-10 Championships last weekend at Stanford.

Coughran, who was seeded No. 1, lost to Mark Perryman of Arizona State, 3-2, in the final of the 141-pound class. Webster was second at 174 pounds after being pinned by Dave Wells of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the final. Nejadmaghaddam qualified at 197 pounds.

The top four finishers in each weight class qualify for the nationals.

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Erin Whiteside, the starting center on the Titan women’s basketball team, has been named to the GTE/CoSIDA District 8 Academic All-America first team. That selection nominates her for the national team. . . . The Titan baseball team will play the Angels April 4 at Edison Field. Game time will be 3 p.m. Admission is free but parking and concessions will be charged at regular-season rates.