Men’s Basketball: Cal State Fullerton upends UC Irvine
FULLERTON — In the free-for-all that is the Big West Conference men’s basketball race, UC Irvine may just not be tough enough to withstand the chase pack.
The first-place Anteaters certainly came up short in tangible and intangible elements at Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, when the Titans wrestled away a 56-54 victory in front of 1,526 at Titan Gym.
The win halted a three-game losing streak for UCI (16-13, 9-4 in conference), which had won the previous 10 meetings with their Orange County rival.
It was the fourth straight win for Cal State Fullerton (14-12, 8-5), which pulls into a third-place tie with Long Beach State.
UC Davis (8-4 in conference) remains in second, drawing one-half game behind UCI, which has three conference games remaining.
UCI pulled ahead late in the first half and held a 39-33 advantage with 10:11 left in the game.
But the Titans went on an 8-0 run and later went ahead, 54-50, when Lionheart Leslie sank a 15-foot pull-up jumper with 1:52 left.
UCI went 2:36 between Luke Nelson three-pointers, the second of which cut the Titans’ lead to 55-53 with three seconds left.
After UCI fouled Fullerton star Tre’ Coggins on the ensuing inbounds play, the senior netted the first of the double-bonus free throws to finalize the scoring. Coggins intentionally missed the second shot, and UCI rebounded and called timeout.
UCI somehow came up with a long inbounds pass that sailed three-quarters of the court, to call another timeout with 0:00.9 left on the clock. But Nelson failed to get a shot off after fielding Ioannis Dimakopoulos’ inbound pass a step behind the three-point line.
“I didn’t think it was a clean pass and catch,” UCI Coach Russell Turner said of the final play. “We work a lot on those situations and I thought we were going to get a good shot there. But we weren’t able to get that, and that’s on me.”
Turner absorbed blame for not having his players ready to play, but also credited the Titans, who posted a 47-39 rebounding advantage, won the turnover battle, 15-12, and came up bigger with the game on the line.
“We were not ready tonight to withstand what Fullerton did to beat us,” Turner said. “What [the Titans] did to beat us was outplay us, outrebound us, outhustle us and outscrap us. Credit to them.”
UCI missed nine of 21 free throws and surrendered 19 offensive rebounds to the Titans, who earned a 14-7 advantage on second-chance points.
Jackson Rowe had seven of his 12 rebounds on the offensive glass, including a pair during a crucial sequence for the Titans.
Rowe came up with a deflected rebound and made a swooping layup while being fouled to put the Titans up, 50-45. He missed the ensuing foul shot, but Leslie wrestled the ball away from UCI’s Tommy Rutherford, who had rebounded, and Rowe was fouled while shooting on the play that followed.
This time, Rowe netted both foul shots for a 52-47 advantage with 2:48 left. It was the last of seven lead changes in a game that also included seven tie scores.
Nelson had a game-high 20 points and matched senior teammate Jaron Martin (12 points) with four three-pointers.
Dimakopoulos was one for seven from the field and finished with seven points, six rebounds and a team-best four assists, while freshman Eyassu Worku chipped in seven points and four rebounds.
Fullerton made just two of its first 15 three-point tries, finished four for 21 from threedom (19%), and shot 31.4% from the field.
Coggins, an Air Force transfer who had averaged eight points in three previous games against UCI and was zero for 10 from the field in the ‘Eaters’ 87-67 win at UCI on Jan. 14, had 11 of his team-best 17 points in the first 11-plus minutes.
“We can withstand a bad offensive night and still win, but we can’t withstand a night when we don’t rebound, can’t get defensive stops, and give the ball away on a bunch of plays in transition,” Turner said. “We played a lot of bad basketball tonight and when we play bad basketball, we’re a bad team. That’s on me.”
Rowe had 12 points to achieve his fourth double-double of the season.
UCI plays host to Cal State Northridge on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Big West Conference
Cal State Fullerton 56, UC Irvine 54
UCI – Galloway 2, Dimakopoulos 7, Nelson 20, Martin 12, Smith 0, Worku 7, Hazzard 2, Rutherford 2, Rivers 2.
3-pt. goals – Nelson 4, Martin 4.
Fouled out – Rutherford.
Technicals – None.
CSF – Rowe 12, Malone 0, Coggins 17, Leslie 11, Allman 2, Ahmad 9, Robertson 5.
3-pt. goals – Coggins 2, Ahmad 1, Leslie 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
Halftime – 27-24, UCI.
