Community College Basketball Roundup : Fullerton Uses Inside Formation to Take Fifth in Tournament

Fullerton College took advantage of an inside edge to defeat West Los Angeles, 80-59, in the fifth-place game of the Riverside Holiday men’s basketball tournament Saturday at Riverside.

Darryl Griffin, a 6-foot 7-inch center, had 26 points, and Mike Goff, a 6-5 forward, had 22 for Fullerton (12-2). Fullerton also starts 6-6 forward Geoff Adams, who had early foul trouble and was limited to 3 points.

West Los Angeles’ starting front line is Sean Guthrie (6-5), Anthony Gates (6-4) and George Copeland (6-0).

“Our inside game has been soft the last week or so,” Fullerton Coach Roger See said. “But we played very well today. We felt our 3 inside guys could dominate their inside guys, and we were right.”

Griffin scored back-to-back baskets early to give Fullerton a 12-6 advantage. The Hornets quickly pushed it to 20-10, and West Los Angeles was never closer the 10 the rest of the game.

Griffin scored 8 consecutive points early in the second half as Fullerton took a 56-36 lead with 13:20 left.

Thing just got worse for West Los Angeles (5-5) later in the half. The Oilers didn’t score from the 6:19 mark to 2:12 as Fullerton built a 78-51 lead, its largest of the game.

Jeff Stewart added 10 points and Kelli McKinney 9, all in the first half, for Fullerton.

Tony Gates scored 16, 12 in the second half, to lead West Los Angeles.