Titans Lose Sixth Game in Row; Santa Barbara Stays Unbeaten

The nation’s only undefeated but unranked team is still undefeated after Cal State Fullerton visited UC Santa Barbara Tuesday.

It was nothing to write to the Associated Press about. Santa Barbara’s 69-59 victory over Fullerton didn’t grade high on style, but it was sufficient to run the Gauchos’ record to 11-0.

Fullerton didn’t let Santa Barbara pull away until the second half, somewhat to the dismay of the denizens of the Events Center, an arena that has been dubbed the Thunderdome despite being domeless.

Fullerton led by as many as 6 in the first half, and trailed only, 32-29, at halftime.

But the Gauchos put the Titans away behind Eric McArthur’s 15 points in the second half. McArthur, a 6-foot 6-inch forward, finished with a career-high 25 points, and had 14 rebounds.

“McArthur really hurt us,” Fullerton Coach John Sneed said. “We shut down Mike Doyle and Gary Gray pretty good.”

It was McArthur who found the weakness to Fullerton’s zone, slipping in behind it.

The victory was Santa Barbara’s 11th without a loss this season, setting a school record for consecutive victories.

The 11-0 mark is easily Santa Barbara’s best start, surpassing last season’s 7-0 start.

Santa Barbara is one of four undefeated Division I teams in the country. The others are No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Illinois and No. 20 Providence.

Fullerton lost its sixth game in a row, falling to 5-7, 0-3 in the Big West Conference.

But the Titans got one great comfort from the game. Cedric Ceballos, who averaged only 10 points in his past 4 games after averaging 25 in his first 7, hit every shot he took in the first half, 6 of 6 from the field, 2 of 2 from the line to finish with 18 points.

“I was out of my slump,” Ceballos said. “Everything flowed right from the start.”

Mark Hill, who had been hot while Ceballos was cold, had a harder night of it, making 4 of 15 shots and finishing with 9 points, only the second time this season he hasn’t scored in double figures.

Fullerton took a 22-16 lead in the first half after going to an aggressive matchup zone defense that helped cause several Santa Barbara turnovers.

It was that Fullerton defense that can be credited for the complaint of the Gaucho fans, who called the game “ugly.”

Good basketball, Fullerton would say, isn’t always lovely to the eye.

But Santa Barbara came back to take the lead again on a 3-point shot by Carrick DeHart (21 points) that put the Gauchos up, 23-22, with about 7 minutes left in the half. Fullerton pulled back even, though, and went up by 3 again. But a 7-1 run by the Gauchos gave them the 3-point halftime lead.

When the second half started, Fullerton went cold. Ceballos, who had dispelled talk of a slump by scoring 14 points in the first half without missing a shot, missed a layup at the outset.

The Titans didn’t score in the second half until more than 4 minutes were gone, finally hitting a basket after Santa Barbara had scored the first 8 points. Fullerton fell behind by as many as 14, but cut it to 6 with 2:47 left. But the Titans couldn’t get it any closer, and Santa Barbara made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch.

“I’m very proud of our guys,” Sneed said. “I think they probably played about as well as anyone has played Santa Barbara the first 20 minutes. I thought for 30 minutes we played pretty good basketball. . . . (The Titans) haven’t surrendered by any means,” Sneed said. They’re still playing every night even though we’ve lost this many games early. I’m proud of that.”

Pimm, who insists this ranking bit is not high on his mind, was dismayed by the Gauchos’ 19 turnovers--many of them partially because of the Fullerton defense. But he did praise his team for rebounding and holding the Titans to 37% shooting.

Sneed had mostly praise for his team, glad to have stuck with an unranked team of such merit for so long--30 minutes by his reckoning.

“I thought we lost our poise a little bit the last 10 minutes,” he said. “I told them we had to be patient and get it back a little bit at a time.”

This time, there was no getting it back.