Cold-Shooting Titans Lose to Weber St., 81-77

Losing a season opener wasn’t exactly new to Cal State Fullerton. The Titans have lost their last three. The first two times, though, the Titans came back to win their second game.

Not this time.

Fullerton struggled badly in a loss to Montana Wednesday night. Against Weber State Friday night, the Titans did a bit better in some respects, not so well in others, and ended with slightly different details but the same result.

This time, it was an 81-77 loss to former UCLA coach Larry Farmer’s Weber State team before a crowd of 6,017 at Dee Events Center.

It is the first time Fullerton has started 0-2 in Coach George McQuarn’s tenure and the first time any Titan team has been 0-2 since 1974. Weber State is 1-1.

“I hoped we would have learned by the Montana loss,” McQuarn said. “We can’t play like that. No way.”

Just as in the loss to Montana, Fullerton was forced to rely too heavily on the outside shooting of Richard Morton, the leading Titan scorer last season. Morton was forced to carry even more of the load after Henry Turner, the Titans’ second-leading scorer, left the game with a sprained ankle in the first half.

Morton finished with 30 points after making 12 of 29 shots, including 5 of 11 three-point attempts. It was the most shots he’d ever taken in a game. No other Titan was in double figures.

Turner’s ankle, which is sprained, was to be X-rayed after the game.

Fullerton shot 41%, making 30 of 73 shots. Against Montana, the Titans shot 43%.