Fresno St. 75, No. 14 Tulsa 72

Sunday, March 12th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- For the third time this season, Fresno State was a few seconds better than Tulsa. Terrance Roberson hit a 3-pointer with 11.5 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs a 75-72 victory over the 14th-ranked Golden Hurricane in Saturday night's championship game of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

Tulsa lost only four games this season, and three of those were last-minute defeats by Fresno State. "Tulsa's a great team. The first time we won I thought maybe it was a fluke, but not any more," Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian said. "This was really one of our greatest wins ever."

Tulsa's players were stunned by yet another down-to-the-wireloss to Fresno State. "My only thought was, `Not again.' Three games that close and coming down to the last shot," David Shelton said. "You would think one would have to go our way."

Though the winner of the WAC tournament does not receive an automatic NCAA tournament berth, both teams are likely candidates for bids It would be Tarkanian's first return to the tournament since 1990-91.

Tarkanian is sixth on the NCAA tournament list with 37 victories, and his UNLV team won the national title in 1989-90. But he battled the NCAA in court for years, and his teams at Long Beach State and UNLV both were in trouble with the NCAA.

Tarkanian has led the Bulldogs to five straight seasons of at least 20 wins, but Fresno State has not been invited to the NCAA tournament the past four seasons. Instead, the Bulldogs have gone to the NIT each of those seasons. "Going to the NCAA tournament will be great, because I think it would have been devastating for the kids to go to the NIT again," Tarkanian said.

Tony Heard gave Tulsa a 71-70 lead on a jumper with 57 seconds remaining, and the Golden Hurricane quickly got the ball back. But Heard threw the ball away with 24 seconds left and -- after a timeout -- Roberson hit his decisive shot from the corner.

"When I went to the huddle, I told the coaches I was hot. I was feeling it all half," Roberson said. "When they went into the zone, my eyes just lit up. When I caught the ball, I knew it was going up and it was going in."

Tulsa's Marcus Hill had two free throws and a chance to tie with 5.4 seconds left, but missed the first. Courtney Alexander then hi two foul shots for Fresno State with 4.1 seconds left and stole Tulsa's ensuing inbound pass.

"We put ourselves in position to win," Tulsa's Eric Coley said, "and it was just amazing to see it slip away again."

Alexander, the nation's leading scorer averaging 25.2 points, had 29 to lead the Bulldogs (24-9). Roberson added 26 for Fresno State, which reached the title game with a wild 103-100 double-overtime win over Hawaii in the semifinals.

Coley had 19 points for Tulsa (29-4), the WAC regular-season champion. Hill added 13 and Brandon Kurtz had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Alexander had 17 points as the Bulldogs took a 35-31 halftime lead. The Hurricane scored the first seven points, holding Fresno State scoreless for the opening 3:16. Alexander gave the Bulldogs their first lead at 12-11 on a jumper, and followed that with a three-point play. Fresno State led the rest of the half.