Titans’ Future Looks Brighter After Victory

Ushers were handing out 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 NCAA tournament last season, came into this game with a 6-10 record that included 5 losses to in-state 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 Big West victory in front of a crowd of 1,621.

This was a game in which the Titans did very nearly what they wanted.

“I’d sum it up as a quality effort, a quality win for us,” Sneed said.

Utah State’s Reid Newey had 3-pointers raining in, but Fullerton’s Mark Hill nearly matched him. Newey hit 7, and Hill had 5.

Cedric Ceballos scored 30 points, and he did it this time on just 16 field-goal attempts. He made 9 of them, and he hit 12 of 15 free throws.

On offense, the Titans were taking good shots--they hit 33 of 63 (52%) in the game.

And on defense, they continued to improve their new matchup zone--plus introducinga fullcourt zone press.

The Aggies--who, granted, 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 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.

“That was the big thing, those turnovers,” Utah State Coach Kohn Smith said.

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

Newey was the main gun for Utah State in the game, finishing 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.

Mark Hill nearly matched Newey from 3-point range, and finished with 26 points, tying his career high.

The Titans fell behind by as many as 3 in the second half, but Utah State couldn’t pull ahead by more.

“In the second half, we get up by 2 points and have the ball and then fire a quick shot from the corner,” Utah State Coach Kohn Smith said. “Another time, we shoot a quick one on an out-of-bounds play and missed. We shot too soon.”

The Titans pulled away again, going up, 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. If we had missed our free throws, they might have beat us.”

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. You just can’t play with that type of ballhandling.”

Smith also said his team had a hard time playing in 4,000-seat Titan Gym after playing Nevada Las Vegas in the 18,000-capacity Thomas & Mack Center Thursday, 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 100 in a small gym. . . . You go from a large arena that’s really well lit. . . . You turn around after that big game. Mentally, it’s a hard thing. “

Fullerton’s Sneed, on the other hand, was clearly pleased.

The Titans had beaten a makeshift San Jose State team Thursday to break a 7-game losing streak.

“We played pretty doggone good against San Jose, too, but you’re not going to get a lot of credit in that one,” Sneed said.

This victory moves the Titans to 2-4 in the Big West Conference, while Utah State dropped to 4-4.

“If we get another win or 2, we can be right there in the middle,” Sneed said.

The Titans had opened the conference with 4 losses in a row.

“If we win at home, and split on the road, that would be fine,” Sneed said. The Titans don’t play again until next Saturday on a road trip to Pacific. Fullerton will play at Fresno State Monday.

“Now we’ve got our 2 wins in a row to end our losing streak and we have some momentum,” Hill said. “We gained a lot of confidence from the game at Las Vegas (a 66-63 loss) . . . We’re ready to go on this trip now.”

Titan Notes

Brent Calvin started at center for the third game in a row. He played 11 minutes and had 3 points and 3 rebounds. John Sykes played 17 minutes at the position, and had 3 points and 5 rebounds. David Moody had 2 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes.