On regional TV and in front of a raucous crowd at Selland Arena, Utah and Fresno State battled back and forth in a great college basketball game Saturday afternoon. The game was up for grabs with a minute left, but the Utes scored six straight points and held the Bulldogs scoreless to take an 88-82 victory in front of 10,220 fans.
The win was the 17th in a row for the Utes, who clinched the Pacific Division of the Western Athletic Conference with two home games remaining this week.
"I thought it was a terrific basketball game and we're very lucky to win," said Utah coach Rick Majerus. "We wanted to win the conference championship. That's our No. 1 goal."
The Utes overcame a sensational performance by Fresno State guard Courtney Alexander, who scored a career-high 37 points on 12-of-21 shooting.
Meanwhile, Utah got fine outings from Hanno Mottola, who led the Utes with 25 points; Andre Miller, who had 19 points and nine assists; Alex Jensen, who had 15 points and 11 rebounds; and Tony Harvey, who scored 10 points. Jeremy Killion scored just eight points, but it was his 3-pointer with just under a minute to play that may have won the game for Utah.
The Bulldogs (18-10, 7-5) had a great chance to win this one and improve their chances for an NCAA berth next month. But they played with all the intelligence of, well, a bulldog, particularly in the last minute with the game on the line.
Early on, it looked like a Ute rout as they raced to a 24-9 lead nine minutes into the game and still led 31-16 with 9:13 left in the first half.
However, the Bulldogs hung tough and a 15-2 run cut the lead to 33-31 with 4:19 left. FSU tied the game twice and after a Ute turnover had a chance for the last shot of the half. However, the Utes caused a turnover with under 10 seconds left and Miller hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Utes a 45-42 halftime lead.
Utah came out strong in the second half and built their lead up to 11 on three occasions, the last at 64-53 with 11:38 left in the game. But the Bulldogs chipped away and finally grabbed the lead at 71-70 on a layup by Melvin Ely with 6:01 left.
After leading most of the game (by as many as 15 points), the Utes were suddenly on the ropes, trailing 80-77 with 3:06 left. But they scored on every possession the rest of the way, while Fresno could only manage a pair of free throws.
First, Miller sank a pair of free throws after rebounding his own miss to cut the lead to 80-79. After Alexander missed a 3-pointer, Mottola sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Utes ahead 82-80. But with 1:17 left Terrance Roberson hit a pair of free throws to tie the score again. Jensen fouled out on the play, causing Majerus to throw one of his fits in front of the Ute bench.
Then came the play of the game.
The Utes had a play set up either to get the ball to Mottola up top or to Althoff inside. But when Miller was suddenly double-teamed on the left side, he fired a pass to a wide-open Killion in the left corner. Killion's shot hit nothing but net.
"My man doubled on Andre and that left me wide open and I just took it -- no second thoughts," said Killion.
"Andre did a terrific job of taking an additional dribble, then he pump faked and suckered that big (forward) into where he couldn't cover the corner," said Majerus. "It was a great play, but at the end of the day, Killion still had to hit the shot."
Down three inside a minute, the Bulldogs could have worked it around for a good shot or logically got the ball to the red-hot Alexander. Instead, guard Chris Herren, who was something like 1-for-his-last-20 3-pointers came down and fired up a three less than 10 seconds later -- and clanked it.
Mottola grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 48.6 seconds left and made one foul shot to make it 86-82. He missed the second, but the ball went off a Bulldog player out of bounds.
Now, you'd have figured the Bulldogs might try to foul a Ute, being down four and the Utes having a full 35 seconds on the shot clock. But no, they let the Utes run the clock down and Miller made a tough driving layup with 20 seconds left to clinch the game.
"I was just trying to beat the five-second count (on being closely guarded) and threw it up there and luckily it went in," said Miller.
Herren fired up another 3-pointer and missed in the final seconds, leaving him 0-for-5 from 3-point range and 0-for-6 overall in his final home game.
Afterwards, FSU coach Jerry Tarkanian was asked about his team's decisions in the final minute.
"I told Chris before the game I didn't want him to be tentative," said Tarkanian. "He's a shooter and we all know that. I think he just thought he had to get on a roll at the time."
The Utes tried at least four different players on Alexander in the first half -- Jensen, Harvey, Killion and Adam Sharp. But the transfer from Virginia was unstoppable, scoring 25 points, including 3-of-3 from 3-point range.
At halftime, Majerus challenged his players to put the stops on Alexander and they did better, although he still scored 12 more points. Even Miller took a turn guarding Alexander in the second half.
"He's by far the best player I've ever guarded," said Jensen. "I probably let him get off a little too much at the beginning of the game. With a player like that, you can't let him get rolling. There's not much you can do. Hopefully you can just slow him down."
"We threw the house at him," said Majerus. "We fronted him, we denied him, we doubled him and we triangle-and-twoed him. He's a phenomenal player and a tremendous talent."
Talented, surely, but in the end, the difference was this -- the Utes played with poise, while the Bulldogs had a severe case of brain cramps. And that's precisely why the Utes have won another WAC championship and are heading to the NCAAs with a high seed -- again -- while the Bulldogs are likely headed to the NIT for postseason play -- again.
© 1999 Deseret News Publishing Co