Titans Steal Show With Some Scoring Thunder, 99-79

There was a bevy of NBA talent scouts in the stands at Gersten Pavilion Saturday night, including Laker General Manager Jerry West, Golden State consultant Pete Newell and Philadelphia assistant Jack McMahon, to name a few of the more notable ones. Presumably, they were in attendance to get a good look at Loyola-Marymount seniors Forrest McKenzie and Keith Smith, both projected to be high draft picks.

What they got instead was an eyeful of Cal State Fullerton players running and dunking their way to a 99-79 nonconference rout, that was more showtime than showdown. West, for one, had seen enough by halftime and when he left, the Titans were already in command, 54-33.

“We played great in the first half. I guess that would have to be the appropriate term,” said Titan Coach George McQuarn, who seldom uses superlatives to describe his own team.

“We rebounded, we defended, we ran our fast break, and there’s no question we shot the lights out in the first half. And we came back to play well, not great, but well in the second half. It was by far our best 40 minutes this year. What you saw out there was a team that truly was ready to play.”

Fullerton shot 68% from the floor in the first half and led by 27 (51-24) with 1:54 left in the half. The Loyola fans, probably some of the scouts and maybe even McQuarn, were in shock.

It just didn’t figure to be this kind of game. Fullerton had beaten Loyola, 76-71, in the first round of the Utah Classic, but the Lions had won four straight since. They had the revenge factor, momentum and the homecourt advantage in their favor.

But it looked as if it was the Titans, not Loyola, who practiced on this court every day. Fullerton wasn’t rattling them in and getting lucky bounces. If they gave extra points for swishes, the Titans would have won by 50.

“At the moment, we’re more impressed with Fullerton’s play than our own deficiencies,” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said. “We could search all night for things that went wrong and keep coming back to Fullerton’s play.”

McKenzie didn’t do much to raise his stock. He hit just 3 of 15 field goal attempts and didn’t score in the second half, finishing with 8 points. Smith put up 24 shots (hitting 11) and came away with 27 points, not to mention a heavy dose of frustration.

All the Titans were smiling after this one, though. Everybody on the roster played and nine Titans scored. All five starters, including Herman Webster who did not get off the bench in the first Lion-Titan encounter, scored in double figures.

Senior point guard Kevin Henderson, who scored 28 and may have moved up a few notches in the NBA draft in the process, was 6 for 6 at the free throw line to extend his consecutive free throw streak to a school-record 31. He surpassed Neale Stoner, now the athletic director at Illinois, who had 30 in a row during the 1960-61 season.

“We had two great practices coming into the game and our intensity level was really up,” Henderson said. “And you always want to play good in the city, man.”

Senior Kerry Boagni, who, like Henderson, is from Los Angeles, rebounded from a pair of sub-par performances to score 17 points, connecting on 8 of 12 mostly long-range jumpers.

“This was kind of a special game for Kev and I because were both from the area,” Boagni said. “Plus, this was sort of a spotlight game around here because UCLA played early and SC was off.”

A pair of sophomores may have stolen the spotlight, though. Henry Turner, getting his third straight start for the Titans, responded with an 18-point first half and ended the evening with 22 points and 5 rebounds when he collapsed in front of the Fullerton bench with 4:40 remaining. He was not seriously injured, just had “the wind knocked out of me.”

Richard Morton’s name also probably will show up in a few NBA futures files. Morton, owner of the prettiest jumper this side of West himself, shot 70% from the field to score 15 and had 7 assists.

Fullerton, which scored a team-record 72 in the second half Wednesday night against U.S. International University, had a total of 126 for the 40 minutes including that half and the first one Saturday.

“Denver Nuggets, look out,” a beaming Morton said.

The Nuggets were one of the few NBA team not represented Saturday night, but when they get wind of this one, they might consider drafting the Titans’ whole starting lineup.