UC Irvine Can’t Handle the Press as Fullerton Women Win, 76-64

The Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team had lost its last three games and, not surprisingly, Coach Maryalyce Jeremiah didn’t like what she saw on the floor.

But at least she thought she had identified the problem.

“Our transition game was pretty bad,” she said. “We were coming down (to the defensive end) in a cluster and then fanning out to find our men. By that time, though, they had already scored.”

Thursday night in Titan Gym, Jeremiah had Fullerton open with a full-court press and the results were 14 steals, lots of breakaway layups and a 76-64 Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. win over UC Irvine.

Fullerton, 5-4 in conference and 7-13 overall, has won the last seven meetings with the Anteaters (4-4, 12-9), including a 67-66 overtime victory Jan. 18 in Crawford Hall.

“We can’t get the monkey off our backs,” Dean Andrea, Irvine coach, said. “I thought we were really ready to play well, but I can’t figure this team out.

“Fullerton did anything they wanted to. We’ve played a lot better defense, but our lack of offensive stability hurt us more. We come down, turn it over and then play 30 seconds of defense. They miss and then get the offensive rebound and we play another 30 seconds of defense. It plays on you.”

With the defense creating the offensive opportunities, the Titans took a 22-11 lead midway through the first half. They were ahead by 10 at 40-30 at halftime.

Irvine, relying mainly on the outside shooting of Erin Higashi (who finished with 14 points) and Valerie Dehn (13), began the second half by forcing the ball inside to center Cheri Graham. Graham, who wears more bandages than most of emergency-room patients, scored six of her 14 points in the first six minutes of the second half and the Anteaters cut the Fullerton lead to 48-44.

“We started getting it inside, forcing their defense to collapse,” Andrea said. “Then we suddenly stopped scoring. That’s the lack of stability I was talking about.”

The Anteater offense did collapse. With Fullerton guards Robin Holmes and Sheryl Jones keeping the tempo upbeat, the Titans ran off 10 points while UCI struggled through a three-minute scoring drought and the Titans built a 69-51 lead.

There were only 73 spectators on hand, but the handful of Titan fans got an eyeful of Holmes. She hit 9 of 16 from the floor, scored a game-high 21 points, had 6 assists and 4 steals.

“It seems like lately when our defense has been good, we’ve struggled on offense and vice versa,” said Holmes, sister of former USC player, Ron. “But tonight we went to the press and that seemed to frustrate them and help our offense.”

Holmes has led the Titans in scoring twice in the last three outings, but she hasn’t been happy with her shooting.

“Lately, I couldn’t even tell if the ball was going in or not . . . . and that’s weird for me,” she said. “I had control of my shots tonight and Irvine’s a good test because they’re usually so far down my jersey it’s crazy.”

Interestingly, Irvine shot very well (71%) from the floor in the second half--when it could hold on to the ball long enough to get a shot away. The Anteaters committed 13 second-half turnovers and attempted just 21 field goals. Both teams made 15 baskets after halftime, but, thanks to their defense, the Titans had the luxury of 32 attempts.