Titans Score a Quality Victory Over TCU

Never mind that Cal State Fullerton had just won two straight games by a total of 79 points. In college basketball, sometimes it’s the company you keep that matters.

And let’s face it, until Friday night’s game against Texas Christian University in the opening round of the Cougar Classic, the Titans had been seen in some pretty lousy company.

So, it’s possible that Fullerton made a statement with Friday’s 56-48 victory over the highly regarded Horned Frogs in BYU’s Marriott Center. Maybe the Titans are for real.

Fullerton’s victories over Cal State Bakersfield and Southern Utah State didn’t exactly have the other three teams in this tournament shaking in their high tops. If the Titans were to gain a little respect, they needed a victory over an opponent of greater stature. They needed to start picking on somebody their own size.

An eight-point victory over a TCU team that many have predicted will win the Southwest Conference should suffice.

Junior forward Henry Turner scored a game-high 18 points and junior guard Richard Morton added 17 to give the Titans their third straight victory and a spot in tonight’s championship game, not to mention a little respect.

In their last outing, the Horned Frogs had handed Tulsa its first defeat of the season. There was to be no doubt about the quality of the Titans’ competition. Unless you listen to TCU Coach Jim Killingsworth, who, after watching his team shoot a season-low 33% from the floor, said the 6,541 in attendance should have been offered refunds.

“I don’t know why they stayed,” Killingsworth said. “I was thinking about leaving myself.

“The problem is, they didn’t play a lot better than we did. I wish I could say they played great. They played smart, but they didn’t play a whole lot better.”

The Titans certainly had a much better start. Fullerton never trailed. Turner scored the game’s first six points, including a crowd-pleasing, spinning dunk he set up by stealing a TCU pass near midcourt. Morton hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to give the Titans a 9-2 lead.

Said Turner: “I wanted to come out hard and show them we meant business.”

The Horned Frogs spent the rest of the game chasing Fullerton, and Killingsworth thought they were running in place. “It looked like we had concrete shoes on out there,” he said.

The Titans had a little to do with that. When they had the ball, they seemed intent on holding it until they had the ideal shot, or until the shot clock told them to quit being so idealistic. TCU spent most of the game in a zone defense designed to prevent shots near the basket.

“They let us be patient,” Titan Coach George McQuarn said. “They set back in (the zone), so we exploited it. It gave us a chance to rest on the offensive end so we could work hard on defense.”

It worked quite well, until TCU began to make a run with about seven minutes to play. Jamie Dixon, who led the Horned Frogs with 13 points, hit an 18-foot jumper and free throw to cut Fullerton’s lead to 44-37 with 6:46 to play. Larry Richard scored after an offensive rebound to make it 44-39, before Morton scored what may have been Fullerton’s most crucial points.

With the shot clock down to three seconds, Morton threw in an off-balance, 18-foot jump shot to extend the Titans’ lead to seven, then hit two free throws with 3:06 to play to make it 48-39. The Horned Frogs never seriously threatened from there.

It wasn’t the most artistic victory. Fullerton shot just 42% (19 of 45) from the floor, and was outrebounded, 37-32. But it was a victory over a quality opponent, and that was what mattered.