Titans Wake Up in Second Half to Rout Pacific, 84-68

Ever have one of those dreams when you want to run, but your legs seem to move in slow motion?

Cal State Fullerton’s basketball team was presumably awake when it took the floor on Monday night, but the Titans seemed to be sleep-walking their way through the first half. Luckily for the Titans, they were being chased by the snails of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., the University of Pacific Tigers.

Despite its nickname, Fullerton hardly qualifies as a sleeping giant, but the Titans came back to the land of the living sometime during halftime and still had plenty of time to rout the hapless Tigers, 86-64, in front of 2,245 in Titan Gym. Fullerton has won six of seven and is 9-4 in conference play and 13-9 overall. Pacific dropped to 3-10 and 7-15.

“We came out flat, unemotional, unenthusiastic and out of sync with the game,” Fullerton Coach George McQuarn said. “I don’t have any answers. In the second half, we were able to make some things happen out of our defense.

“We seem to have this problem with certain people--Pacific, Santa Barbara and Long Beach--and I don’t really know why. We always play hard against our other opponents.”

Part of the answer is obvious. Those three teams have served as the league’s doormats in recent years. And the Tigers have been an especially effective panacea. If you’re in a slump, take a game against the Tigers and go to bed. You’re bound to feel better in the morning.

Fullerton, despite its lackluster play, was ahead by six points (33-27) at halftime. But the Titans outscored Pacific, 9-2, to open the second half and led by as many as 23 late in the game.

“We always come out a little flat,” Titan forward Tony Neal said. “That’s sort of our history. We take some teams too lightly and I know that’s going to hurt us in the long run.”

Playing Pacific has a sort of numbing effect, though. No matter how poorly you perform, there’s someone in a black and orange Tiger uniform who will do worse.

“There’s not much I can say,” said UOP Coach Tom O’Neill, who had quite a bit to say to the officials in the first half and then spent the second half squatting by himself beyond the end of the bench, as if he was trying to disassociate himself from his team.

“We don’t have the horses . . . Teams just overpower us at certain points in the game. And we’re making a lot of critical mistakes, too.”

And that’s just the positive points.

O’Neill wasn’t the only one worrying about where his season was headed. Fullerton was coming off its worst loss of the year on Saturday (85-69 at Santa Barbara) and that defeat had come on the heels of the Titans’ biggest victory of the season, a 52-51 win over Fresno State.

McQuarn was beginning to see visions of the last two years when the Titans pulled off big upsets and then rolled over and died afterward. Two years ago, Fullerton beat then top-ranked Nevada Las Vegas and then lost three of its next five to bow out of the season. And last year, the Titans won at Fresno State before dropping seven of their last eight.

“This was a big win for us,” McQuarn said. “I certainly thought about the last two seasons in the last few days.”

It was also a big night for freshman Henry Turner, who had career highs in points (12), rebounds (11) and minutes played (20). Turner was playing center because McQuarn hasn’t been happy with the play of seniors DeWayne Shepard and Gary Moeller.

“Turner is gaining confidence and we’re working on getting him to play under control,” McQuarn said. “I think you guys can see the potential there. He’s only going to get better and Shepard and Moeller are as good as they’re gonna get.”

Neal led Fullerton with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 blocked shots. Kevin Henderson scored 15 and Gary Davis added 14.

Freshman Rosario Domingo, from the Dominican Republic, scored 13 points to pace the Tigers, but don’t expect O’Neill to say anything like, “Wait ‘til next year.”

The Tigers are so over-matched that even Fullerton’s self-proclaimed biggest fan, Bill Harvey, couldn’t get excited for this one. Harvey, whose sideline histrionics are legendary in this part of the county, usually burns as many calories as some of the players. On Monday night, he sat stoically in his seat, getting up just once to congratulate the band on a number it performed during a timeout.