Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State Drops WAC Tournament Tilt
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 1999
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Eric Coley scored a career high 22 points and had several key steals Thursday and Tulsa shut down Fresno State's offense in the second half Thursday to beat the Bulldogs 85-56 in the Western Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinals.
Tulsa held Fresno State to only two points during a stretch of 9:17 in the second half that turned a 59-49 lead into a 77-51 blowout by the time Willie Farley made a pair of free throws with 1:43 left for the Bulldogs.
Fresno State went the last 11 minutes of the game with only one field goal before Randy Holcomb made a meaningless layup with 11 seconds left.
Tulsa (22-8) advanced to a Friday semifinal game against either No. 8 Utah or Brigham Young. Fresno State (21-11) will await a possible bid to its fourth straight National Invitation Tournament under Jerry Tarkanian.
Tulsa led only 33-31 with 1:13 left in the first half, but scored the final five points of the half to take a 38-31 halftime advantage.
Coley scored two of those final first half points on a steal and layup, one of his four steals for the game. He also had four assists and six rebounds.
Fresno State managed to stay close in the opening minutes of the second half, and pulled to within 52-46 on a steal and dunk by center Melvin Ely with 12 minutes left.
Marcus Hill then made two straight field goals to spark a Tulsa run that saw the Golden Hurricane outscore the Bulldogs 33-10 the rest of the game. Tulsa shot 63 percent from the field to 37 percent for the Bulldogs.
Hill had 18 points for Tulsa, while Greg Harrington and Tony Heard added 10 apiece.
Courtney Alexander had 21 points for Fresno State, which also got 11 from center Melvin Ely. No other Fresno State player had more than four points.
Tulsa made nine of 12 3-point attempts for the game to only two of 19 for Fresno State.
