Fullerton Is Out of Step in Loss to Pepperdine

With its top scorer/top assist man/team captain/floor general on the bench in street clothes, Cal State Fullerton lost to Pepperdine Saturday night, as expected.

But nobody--not the injured Kevin Henderson, neither of the coaches or even a psychic--could have predicted the way this one would be decided.

Fullerton trailed, 40-33, after the Waves shot 79% from the floor in the half, but the Titans rallied with an aggressive full-court defense and the shooting of Richard Morton and they had a chance to send the game into overtime when Eugene Jackson stepped to the free-throw line with nine seconds remaining.

Jackson made the first free throw to cut the Waves’ lead to 65-64 and had just taken the ball from the official to contemplate the second shot when a whistle sounded and official Bill Spooner was signaling that it was Pepperdine’s ball out of bounds.

After some debate, the officials informed the Fullerton bench that Morton had moved after Jackson had been handed the ball--a lane violation. Nine seconds later, the Waves had a 67-64 nonconference victory in front of 3,027 confused spectators in Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse.

“You hate to see a game decided like that for Fullerton’s sake, but I saw him move and had just jumped up to start yelling when they made the call,” Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said.

McQuarn thought Harrick was half right . . . it was a tough way to lose. But he said that “in our opinion, Morton moved before Jackson got the ball.”

The Titans had only themselves to blame in one sense. Fullerton had four men in position to rebound when McQuarn noticed that Pepperdine’s Jon Korfas was standing alone under the Waves’ basket. McQuarn was yelling at Morton to get back on defense when the sophomore flinched and moved one foot.

“I took a half step, just moving my left foot a little bit while the referee was handing Eugene the ball,” said Morton, who later changed the crucial “while” to “before.”

The controversy overshadowed a tenacious performance by the Henderson-less Titans (7-5) and a lackluster outing by the Waves (9-2).

“It certainly never should have gotten to that point,” said Harrick, who watched as his team’s six-point lead disappeared in the final 1:22.

The Titans may have to begin conference play without their senior point guard, who was averaging 21 points a game before severely spraining his right ankle Sunday. Henderson said he will “try to walk on it tomorrow.”

Fullerton opens Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. action Thursday at home against New Mexico State.

“I really doubt he’ll be ready,” McQuarn said. “I thought we played very well considering all the adjustments we had to make because Kevin is out. They led by as much as nine, but we kept coming after them. We did some good things out there.”

Senior guard Dwayne Polee didn’t score for the first 14 minutes of the game, but he had 10 points at halftime and was the only Pepperdine player who missed more than one field-goal attempt before the intermission.

Polee finished with 14 points to lead the Waves, who had four other players in double figures.