MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Jerry Tarkanian has won a lot basketball
games and his record in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is
one of the best of all time.
|  | | Shantay Legans and the Golden Bears couldn't figure out a way past Fresno State. |
The one he got Friday night might have meant the most to him.
Ninth-seeded Fresno State beat No. 8 California 82-70 in the
first round of the South Regional. The win improved Tarkanian's
career record in the first round to 17-1, but this was his first at Fresno State.
"Fresno is a very special place for me. It's my alma mater and
my wife's alma mater. It's where my daughter was born and where I
started my coaching career at a Catholic high school," said the
70-year-old Tarkanian, who started coaching at Fresno State in
1995-96, three seasons after he left UNLV.
"I thought we could do this before now, but it's taken us a
little longer. But I'm happy we got in the tournament and happy we
got a win and let's see what happens from here. There's a lot of
upsets. Who knows? Maybe St. Jude will come in and help us, because
we need it."
The victory, the 759th of Tarkanian's career, set up a
second-round matchup with top-seeded Michigan State on Sunday. The
defending national champions beat Alabama State 69-35.
"What a great reward," Tarkanian said. "They're all bodybuilders. That's the problem of being an eight or a nine seed, win and you play number one."
It was the second NCAA win ever for Fresno State (26-6). The
Bulldogs lost in the first round last year, ending Tarkanian's
perfect opening-round run. He won four first-round games at Long
Beach State and 12 at UNLV, including the championship season of
1990. His last NCAA win before Friday night was in the regional
final in 1991, then the Runnin' Rebels lost to Duke in the Final
Four.
Demetrius Porter scored a career-high 27 points for the Bulldogs
and helped stem three second-half comebacks by California (20-11).
Porter, a senior guard whose previous best was 26 points against
Rice as a junior, hit a 3-pointer to start an 8-0 run when the
Bears closed to 46-43 with 13:54 to play. He ended the run with a
nice high-arching shot on a long drive.
Cal, which was making its first tournament appearance since
1997, closed to 56-51 but Porter hit the last of his five
3-pointers with 7:34 left to give Fresno State a 61-51 lead. He
finished 5-for-10 from 3-point range.
The last run by the Bears had them within six at 68-62 with 3:38
to play when Porter made two free throws to start Fresno State's
closing run of 14-8 with all the points coming from the free-throw
line.
"I was just trying to get us a win," said Porter, who averages
15.1 points. "I wasn't thinking about points. The only thing that
matters to me is how the team does."
Melvin Ely, the Western Athletic Conference player of the year,
added 21 points and 13 rebounds for Fresno State, while Chris
Jeffries had 15 points.
Shantay Legans had 15 points to lead the Bears, while Pac-10
player of the year Sean Lampley had 13, six below his average. He
had just four points in the first half on 2-for-8 shooting and was
6-for-18 for the game, well off his season mark of 51 percent.
"This is not how I wanted my career to end," Lampley said. "I
did not put my best effort out and that cost us this game. With me
being the leader of this team and these guys looking up to me, and
I didn't come to play. I'm not taking anything away from Fresno
State but if I played better we could have won this game."
Tarkanian was impressed with his team's effort against Lampley.
"The job our guys did on Lampley was incredible," he said.
California coach Ben Braun agreed.
"They did a great job of maintaining the pressure and we didn't
get into our offense and that limited the times Sean touched the
ball," he said. "He wound up catching it a lot of times out of
the scoring area and they did a tremendous job of helping when he
did get there."
California lost four of its last five games.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Fresno State Clubhouse
California Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jerry Tarkanian can't believe the size of some of the Michigan State players. (courtesy NCAA)
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