Titans Beaten by N.E. Louisiana, 66-65

The Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team dominated the backboards throughout Wednesday night’s nonconference game against fifth-ranked Northeast Louisiana in Titan Gym.

The Titans out-rebounded the Indians, 46-28, and scored heavily in the second half on second, third and sometimes fourth shots.

But Fullerton couldn’t come up with the big offensive rebound when it needed it most, and the Titans lost to Northeast Louisiana, 66-65, in front of 1,053.

Fullerton (8-4) trailed by a point but had the ball with 19 seconds remaining, and it looked for a last, game-winning shot. The Titans worked it to Robin Holmes on the right side, but her 20-foot jumper with six seconds left was off the mark.

Indian forward Jocelyn Hill grabbed the rebound and was fouled with two seconds to play. She missed the front end of a one-and-one situation, but the Titans were unable to get another shot off at their end of the court.

“We had an opportunity to win the game and didn’t do it,” Fullerton Coach Chris Gobrecht said. “We had the last shot but couldn’t knock it down. You can’t ask for much more.

“We had the play designed for Robin, but it wasn’t suppose to be a 25-footer. You can never get mad at a kid for missing a shot, though.”

Northeast Louisiana, which improves to 9-0, was led all game by center Lisa Ingram, who scored a game-high 30 points, including an inside basket with 1:12 left that put the Indians in front, 66-65.

Point guard Jung Eun Lee added 14 points and 11 assists. One of those came early in the game when she rifled an around-the-back pass to Ingram, who converted the layup. Lee ranks second in the country in assists.

One reason the Titans had such a successful rebounding game was that forward Chana Perry, considered one of the top freshman in the nation, picked up her fourth foul with 14:30 to play and sat out most of the second half. She returned with 5:30 to go but fouled out 20 seconds later.

“We simply did not dictate the boards tonight,” Indian Coach Linda Harper said. “Fullerton hit the boards hard, and that’s to their credit and that’s our problem.

“We’ve been an extremely good rebounding team this year--we had out-rebounded every team we’ve played. But tonight, we weren’t making the contact to block out.”

The Titans took full advantage, scoring several of their points on follow shots. Meg Gallagher led Fullerton with 18 points, and Holmes finished with 14. Center Terri Withers added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Fullerton led for all of the second half until Lee stole a Titan pass and drove the length of the court for a layup and a 62-61 lead with 3:55 remaining.

On its next possession, Fullerton got three offensive rebounds and took four shots, but all missed. Ingram then took a lob pass from Lee on the other end of the floor and scored from inside to give Northeast Louisiana a 64-61 lead.

Titan guard Jennifer Latta later missed the second free throw in the bonus situation, but Fullerton controlled the rebound and Holmes hit a jumper to give the Titans a 65-64 lead with 1:38 left.

But that was the last time the Titans were ahead. Ingram sank the game-winner at the 1:12 mark and the Indians were able to hold off the Titans in the end.

Fullerton had a six-game winning streak going in, and a win over the Indians would have meant a lot for the Titans’ improving program.

“They would have had to rank us (in the Top 20),” Gobrecht said. “That would have been a first for our program, and it would have been nice.

“But we played a good, solid typical Fullerton game and almost beat the fifth-ranked team in the nation. If we can do that against everyone else, I think we’ll do all right.”