Titans Still Haven’t Found What They’re Looking for, Lose, 81-77

Losing a season opener wasn’t exactly new to Cal State Fullerton. The Titans have lost their past three. The last two seasons, however, they came back to win their second game.

Not this time.

Fullerton struggled badly in a loss to Montana Wednesday. 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 in front of 6,017 in 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, at the start of a 13-11 season.

“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 Titans’ leading scorer last season. Morton was forced to carry the load even more after Henry Turner, the Titans’ second-leading scorer, left the game with a sprained ankle in the first half. Morton finished with 30 points on 12 of 29 shots, including 5 of 11 three-point attempts. It was the most shots he ever had 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% from the field, making 30 of 73 shots. Against Montana, the Titans shot only slightly better (43%).

McQuarn faulted his team for not playing aggressively enough, and for not going after loose balls and rebounds.

“I think, to Weber State’s credit, they played much harder in the paint than we did, and they dominated us on the boards,” he said. “They were getting two, three attempts after missed free throws and missed field goals.”

Weber State (1-1) finished with a 41-38 rebounding edge, and shot 37 free throws to Fullerton’s 15.

“We kept getting the ball inside, which means easy shots or you get fouled,” Farmer said. “And the loose ball stat--the team that can control those has a far better chance of winning.”

The Titans trailed by as many as eight in the first half, but closed the deficit to 44-43 at halftime as Morton made a three-pointer just before the buzzer.

The Titans scored the first six points of the second half, taking a five-point lead. But Weber State came back and took a 63-56 lead as the Titans struggled through five minutes without a field goal.

“We go up by five in the second half, then let it get away from us,” McQuarn said. “I thought that was real interesting. I thought maybe we were going to get up 12.”

Morton cut the lead to 77-75 on a jump shot from the lane with 1:52 remaining, and Fullerton’s defense forced Weber State to make an off-balanced three-point attempt as the shot-clock ran out on the next possession. But in the scramble for the rebound, Weber State got the ball back--and another 45 seconds on the shot clock.

Rico Washington made two free throws with 44 seconds left and then made it 81-75 with a breakaway layup after Morton missed a shot at the other end.

Fullerton’s Van Anderson made a shot with 17 seconds left that closed the margin to 81-77.

After two starters--John Sykes and Vincent Blow combined for only four points against Montana, McQuarn tried a different combination, starting Oval Miller and Bobby Adair inside. The foursome, once again sharing playing time, fared only somewhat better.

Blow scored seven points, and Adair and Miller finished with six. Sykes did not score.

Their point output, in fact, was close to their foul output. Miller and Blow fouled out, and Adair and Sykes each committed four.

But McQuarn didn’t attribute this loss to the inexperience of Fullerton’s different combinations.

“This was not about Henry Turner, not about those different combinations,” he said. “For 40 minutes they dominated us.”

The Titans still have the meat of their nonconference schedule ahead of them, including games against New Orleans, Utah and Pepperdine.

“We’ve got to find out about Turner before we know anything,” McQuarn said.