Big West Conference

Big West basketball coaches are talking parity again, and this time it might be more than empty rhetoric. In their preseason poll, four teams got first-place votes, although six coaches picked New Mexico State to repeat as conference champion. The Aggies, who have won an average of 24 games over the last six seasons and made the NCAA tournament six times in a row, might be in for a fight as they seek a third consecutive Big West title.

Larry Johnson scored 28 points to lead No. 9 Nevada Las Vegas to an 84-75 victory over Fresno State Monday night in a Big West Conference basketball game in Selland Arena at Fresno. Johnson scored 17 of his points in the second half as UNLV (11-3, 5-1 in conference play) broke open the game with a 22-12 run in the first eight minutes. David Butler added 16 points and 13 rebounds for UNLV. Tod Bernard led Fresno State (6-8, 1-4) with a career-high 27 points.

Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton both will be trying to get back on a winning track when the teams meet in a Big West Conference basketball game at 7:35 tonight at Fullerton's Titan Gym. Long Beach is coming off a 97-76 loss to Nevada Las Vegas Tuesday night and has lost 4 of its last 5 games, the win was against American University. The 49ers (3-7) also lost to LaSalle, Texas and Alabama Birmingham in that stretch.

The University of the Pacific women's basketball team defeated UC Irvine, 71-51, Wednesday before only 121 in the first round of the Big West Conference tournament at Long Beach Arena. It was the Anteaters' 27th loss in 28 games and their 24th in a row. Both are school records. Irvine's only victory this season was a 59-57 win over Southern Utah State on Dec. 8. Center Julie Szukalski scored 19 points and guard Charmon Logan had 15 to lead Pacific (14-14), which meets Hawaii today at 3 p.m.

The Cal State Fullerton men's basketball team will play Cal State Long Beach at 9 p.m., and UC Irvine will play UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Big West Conference tournament beginning Friday at the Long Beach Sports Arena. The Titans (12-15, 8-10 in conference) tied University of the Pacific for sixth place, but Pacific was seeded fifth by virtue of a coin flip and will play fourth-seeded Utah State in the first round.

There were 22 seconds left when the players on UC Irvine's bench started lifting their jerseys to show their T-shirts underneath. "I think we can," the shirts read. "UCI basketball." They could, and they did. Irvine, which entered the Big West Conference tournament with a 6-21 record, pulled off an 88-67 upset of top-seeded UC Santa Barbara in the first round before 4,134 at Long Beach Arena on Friday night. The Anteaters will play fifth-seeded Pacific (13-15) in a semifinal tonight.

Former Nevada Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian cornered Cal State Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg before the 49ers' Big West Conference tournament semifinal against the Rebels on Saturday night. Talking to the third-year coach as they sat in the stands at the Long Beach Arena, Tarkanian offered a little advice. "Here's how you stop J.R.," Tark said of conference player of the year J.R. Rider. "You got to get into him, get your hands up. Crowd him real good. Crowd him out."

No banana splits. And this time, there will be no ice cream sundaes or spaghetti dinners, either. There is only the off-season.

Angelique Lee scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed a tournament-record 20 rebounds to lead 14th-ranked Cal State Long Beach to an 89-59 victory in the quarterfinal round of the Big West Conference women's basketball tournament Thursday at the Long Beach Arena. The victory earned the 49ers a Saturday semifinal date with Pacific, a 68-63 upset winner over Hawaii. Long Beach led, 19-15, with 8:39 to play in the first half and went on an 18-3 run.