Fullerton Beats BYU in Tournament Final

The noise was deafening. There were 18,120 spectators on their feet, screaming for Cal State Fullerton’s Richard Morton to throw up an air ball and give the Pride of Provo a chance. He didn’t.

Morton hit both ends of a one-and-one free-throw situation with 15 seconds to play to give Fullerton a 59-56 victory over Brigham Young in the championship game of the BYU tournament Saturday night in a noisy Marriott Center.

Junior forward Derek Jones played the best game of his brief Titan career, leading Fullerton with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Henry Turner, named the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 14 points, as did Morton, Fullerton’s other representative on the all-tournament team.

The win, coupled with Friday night’s victory over Texas Christian, can’t help but establish Fullerton (4-1) as a team to reckon with in the West. BYU drops to 2-4.

Morton’s free throws enabled Fullerton to hold off a furious BYU comeback attempt. The Cougars trailed, 57-49, with 1:16 to play but scored seven straight points to cut the Titan lead to 57-56 with 23 seconds remaining.

The Titans had every reason to expect BYU to give them their toughest game of the season. One of the disadvantages of stocking your roster with Moromon athletes, as BYU does, is that those athletes sometimes interrupt their careers to go on Mormon missions. One of the advantages is that those athletes generally return, more mature and hungry to get back to the court.

So, besides four starters back from a team that finished 18-14 last season, the Cougars were supplied with two-thirds of a starting front line from returning missionaries. Jim Usevitch, a 6-foot 9-inch center from Ocean View High School, was back from a mission to New Zealand. Michael Smith, a 6-foot 9-inch forward who set a Southern Section single-season passing record while playing quarterback at Los Altos High School, returned from a mission to Argentina.

Usevitch had emerged as one of the best centers in the Western Athletic Conference before leaving two years ago. Smith is a talented offensive player. Together, they had provided an average of 24 points and 10 rebounds per game entering Saturday’s game.