High-Flying Fullerton Brought Down to Earth by 58-55 Loss to Pacific

Cal State Fullerton boarded a bus here late Monday night for a seven-hour ride into darkness. It would be a quiet trip, one used to contemplate lessons not learned, and a painful return to reality.

After an unreal start to the 1986-87 season, the Titans returned to earth with a resounding thud Monday night in the University of the Pacific’s Spanos Center.

Senior center Brent Counts had a career-high 26 points, including four free throws in the final 23 seconds, to lead Pacific to a 58-55 Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. upset of a Fullerton team that had spent most of December opening the eyes of West Coast college basketball.

Against Pacific, the Titans played as if they were in a daze. The letdown, Coach George McQuarn said he had feared, happened. Boy, did it happen.

The Titans lost twice to Pacific last season, with essentially the same players they had on the floor Monday night. McQuarn tried to remind his players of this, but nothing he said seemed to work.

Fullerton was sleepwalking, and didn’t wake up until it was much too late. It was the Titans’ third straight loss to Pacific, dropping them to 1-1 in PCAA play, 8-3 overall. Pacific, nearly everybody’s pick to finish near the bottom of the PCAA standings, is 2-0, 6-5.

As lethargic as the Titans played, they actually had a chance to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to play. Henry Turner put in an offensive rebound to cut Pacific’s lead to 54-53 with 39 seconds left.

On the Tigers’ ensuing possession, Titan forward Vincent Blow grabbed a loose ball under the Pacific basket, appearing to give Fullerton the chance to work for the tying basket. But Blow hurried a poor outlet pass to Richard Morton near midcourt, and the ball was intercepted by Counts. Morton fouled Counts immediately, and the son of former Laker center Mel Counts made both ends of a one-and-one to give Pacific a 56-53 lead with 23 seconds to play. Counts added two more free throws with 13 seconds left to complete Fullerton’s upsetting night.

“Our loss is attributed to not being mentally ready for this ballgame,” McQuarn said. “Sometimes, the kids have to get themselves ready to play.”

Junior forward Derek Jones was one of few Titans who wasn’t around last season to be part of the losses to a Pacific team that didn’t figure to have the talent to match up with Fullerton. Jones said McQuarn kept reminding his players of those losses, but nothing he said seemed to work.

“There was just not intensity out there,” Jones said. “Coach told us right before we went on the floor that he could see in our eyes that we weren’t ready to play.

“All five guys went out there waiting for someone else to take charge, and no one did.”

Morton, who made 7 of 11 shots in Saturday’s 65-47 win over Fresno State, certainly didn’t. He was 6 of 22 against the Tigers.

For the first time all season, Fullerton committed more turnovers than its opponent. The Titans had 20 to Pacific’s 13. They shot 37% (12 of 32) from the field in the second half, and couldn’t create easy points with defense.