Fullerton Survives San Jose : Titans Nearly Pass Up Opportunity for Their 3rd-Straight Victory

Cal State Fullerton completed its sweep of a three-game homestand Monday night with a 62-60 victory over San Jose State in front of 2,477 spectators in Titan Gym. Take notice, Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. The Titans are back.

Hold it. Not so fast. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that--three straight victories or not--the Titans are still an average team with average problems.

After a six-game losing streak, the Titans came home and got themselves back in the PCAA race, if a nine-way tie for mediocrity can be called a race. But Monday night’s victory didn’t exactly have the Titans swaggering off the court or making bold postgame predictions about the remainder of their weird season.

This was a game the Titans richly deserved to lose, and almost did. They had a 14-point lead with 1:46 to play, and nearly left the floor talking about the one that got away. It wasn’t so much that San Jose State rallied, it was more that the Titans came apart in the final two minutes.

From the time Vincent Blow put in an offensive rebound to give Fullerton a 60-46 lead with 1:41 to play until the final buzzer, the Titans were outscored, 14-2. In between, there were Fullerton fouls, errant inbounds passes, and enough general confusion to leave Titan Coach George McQuarn wondering if he really won when it was over.

“It was embarrassing the way we played in that last minute,” McQuarn said. “We must have made five or six mistakes in that last minute. We tried to lose the game. It was absolutely embarrassing.”

Realistically, it should never have been that close. Not when Ricky Berry, who scored a game-high 29 points, was the only San Jose State player to score in double figures. Not when the Spartans shot 38% from the field. Not when the Titans outrebounded San Jose State, 34-24. And not when the Spartans had four players with three fouls by halftime.

But Fullerton’s inability to inbound the ball in the closing minutes and some inspired play by Berry and his teammates turned what had all the makings of a rout into another headache for McQuarn. Berry scored 21 of his 29 points in the second half, including 11 in the final 2:30.

Here’s how bad things got for the Titans during the final minute: Berry scored four points without using a single tick on the clock. The son of Spartan Coach Bill Berry hit two free throws after a silly blocking foul on Alexander Hamilton with 34 seconds to play. On the ensuing inbounds play, Berry drew a charging foul on Fullerton’s Oval Miller, before the clock had a chance to start. Berry added two more free throws (he finished the game 10 of 10 from the line) to cut Fullerton’s lead to 61-54 with 34 seconds left.

Berry than stole Derek Jones’ inbounds attempt and got the ball to Anthony Perry for an easy layup with 27 seconds remaining. The Spartans called a quick timeout trailing, 61-56.

Richard Morton hit the front of a one-and-one to give the Titans a 62-56 lead with 19 seconds to play, but Berry grabbed the miss on the second free throw and went the length of the court for an uncontested dunk to make it 62-58 with 12 seconds left. The Spartans used another timeout to set up another Fullerton adventure in inbounding.

This time, Jones could find nobody to pass to and was called for a five-second violation. Perry hit a 19-foot jumper from just inside the three-point line to make it 62-60 with eight seconds left. San Jose State used another timeout. This time, Jones was able to get the ball inbounds to Eugene Jackson, who was fouled with five seconds remaining. Jackson missed the front end of the one-and-one, but Webster got the rebound to deny San Jose State a last-shot opportunity.

Morton scored 22 points, Jones added 14 and Webster had a career-high 13 rebounds to help Fullerton (4-6, 11-8).