Minnesota Moves On To Championship

March 25, 1998 / 3:46 AM EST / CBS/AP

With the man who exposed its off-court problems to America watching from the stands, Fresno State's improbable run to a championship ended Tuesday night.

Kevin Clark scored a career-high 30 points and Sam Jacobson added 24 as Minnesota advanced to the NIT championship with a 91-89 overtime victory over the Bulldogs.

Fresno State's season of scandal, which included arrests, suspensions and substance abuse problems for some of its star players, was recently the focus of a "60 Minutes" feature by CBS correspondent Mike Wallace.

After the story was aired, Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian criticized Wallace for not being up front with him about its content. But at halftime, Wallace, a guest of Tarkanian's, said he and the coach had spoken before the game and had "a very civilized conversation."

The Gophers (19-15) left Tarkanian's club with only a consolation game remaining while advancing to play the winner of Tuesday's second semifinal between Penn State and Georgia on Thursday night in the final.

"This loss really hurts because of all the adversity we went through," said Tarkanian, whose club had won its previous three tournament games by a total of eight points.

Minnesota, which won the NIT in 1993, is playing in its second straight national semifinals after making to the Final Four last year.

"We feel this is our Final Four," Gophers coach Clem Haskins said.

Fresno State was done in by poor shot selection down the stretch and a costly technical foul late in regulation.

With the Bulldogs leading 70-66 with five minutes left, Fresno State's Kevin Roberson was whistled for attempting to trip Quincy Lewis after a rebound. After Eric Harris made both technical free throws, Jacobsen hit a 3 to put Minnesota up by one, a five-point swing.

"The technical was the key point in the game," Tarkanian said. "I didn't see what happened."

Jermaine Fowlkes led Fresno State (21-12) with 25 points and Chris Herren had 14 all in the second half.

The second meeting between Fresno State and Minnesota was much tighter that the first, a 92-72 Gophers victory in December. The clubs went at each other hard from the outset, and went to overtime tied at 77.

Herren's free throw with 2:52 left in OT gave the Bulldogs an 82-81 lead before Jacobsen was fouled and made two to put the Gophers back up.

After Fowlkes missed only his second in 12 attempts Jacobson scored underneath to put Minnesota up by three with 2:10 remaining. Herren's bucket cut it to 85-84, and the Bulldogs got a chance to take the lead when Quincy Lewis missed, but Fresno turned the ball over.

Lewis made two free throws with 48 seconds left, and the Gophers closed it out at the fre throw line after Herren lost control of the ball while making a baseline move.

Clark, who scored 21 points against Fresno State earlier this year, went 9-for-16 from the field and 9-for-9 from the line.

Fowlkes, 10-for-12 from the field, entered the game making 22 of his previous 28 shots.

In regulation, Rafer Alston's 3-pointer with 48 seconds left and Demetrius Porter's lay-in 15 seconds later put Fresno State up 77-74 with 23 seconds left.

Clark then missed a deep 3-pointer with 10 seconds left that Lewis ran down in the corner before drilling a 3 to tie it with 4.8 seconds to play. Fresno State rushed the ball up court, but Larry Abney missed a jumper at the buzzer, sending the teams to overtime.

"I got the rebound and knew I had time to get the shot off," Lewis said. "I just wanted to make sure I was behind the line."

After trailing by four at halftime, the Bulldogs went on a 14-4 run capped by Fowlkes' tip-in to take a 46-40 lead with 16:13 remaining. But with Clark scoring 10 points, including seven on two straight trips, the Gophers caught up at 59.