CS Fullerton Presses Past Utah State, 96-87

In a promotion by a fast-food restaurant, ushers were giving away sunglasses to fans entering Titan Gym Saturday night for Cal State Fullerton’s game against Utah State.

Not that the future of either of these teams seemed bright enough to require them.

The Aggies, who went to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament last season, came into this game with a 6-10 record that included 5 losses to intrastate rivals.

Fullerton, after a 5-1 start, had fallen to 6-8.

But the Titans turned a corner against Utah State, looking like a team that has begun to find itself in a 96-87 victory.

Fullerton, which has switched from a pressure man-to-man defense to a matchup zone in the past 2 weeks, unveiled a full-court zone press against Utah State.

The Aggies, who have trouble with pressure of any sort, committed 14 first-half turnovers, many of them in the backcourt and many of them resulting in Fullerton baskets.

It was on such a play--a steal by Cedric Ceballos in the backcourt that ended with a reverse dunk despite 3 defenders--that Fullerton took a 10-point lead with 4 minutes left in the first half.

The Titans, who made 18 of 36 shots in the first half, might have put the game away then, but the 3-point shooting of Reid Newey kept the Aggies close. Newey hit 5 3-pointers in the first half, and Utah State trailed at halftime, 45-38.

Newey kept Utah State in the game, picking at the Titans’ zone with 7 3-pointers, and finished with 29 points.

“If it wasn’t for Newey in the first half, we might have been blowing them out,” Fullerton Coach John Sneed said.

Ceballos beat Newey out for game-high scoring honors though, getting 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting plus 12 of 15 free throws.

Fullerton’s Mark Hill was Newey’s more obvious rival, nearly matching him from 3-point range. He scored 26 points, including 5 of 7 3-pointers.

The Titans fell behind by 3 points in the second half but pulled away again, going ahead, 81-76, with 2 minutes left and then hitting 12 of 15 free throws down the stretch.

“The last 2 minutes seemed like an eternity,” Sneed said. “I thought (Aggie Coach Kohn) Smith did an outstanding job of milking the clock.”

Smith was hardly pleased with his team’s performance, calling it the Aggies’ “worst of the year.”

“The first half we came out and just didn’t play. Defensively, we were very poor, and obviously, offensively we had 14 turnovers in the first half.”

Smith also said his team had a tough time playing in 4,000-seat Titan Gym after facing UNLV in the 18,000-capacity Thomas and Mack Center Thursday night, a game the Aggies lost, 102-80.

“You play at Vegas in front of 18,000 and then come in here and play in front of a few hundred in a small gym. . . . You go from a large arena that’s really well lit. . . . You turn around after that big game.”

Sneed, on the other hand, was clearly pleased. “I’d sum it up as a quality effort, a quality win for us,” Sneed said.