UCI’s Long-Range Shots Can’t Stop Titans, 78-75

Just when UC Irvine had drawn the envy of the Big West Conference by upsetting Nevada Las Vegas last week, Cal State Fullerton went and dimmed the Anteaters’ glory by doing the same.

Fullerton upset UNLV in overtime Thursday, setting up a charged meeting with Irvine Saturday in front of 4,718 in the Bren Center.

Irvine unleashed a flurry of three-pointers against the Titans, making 13 in the game. But the Anteaters fell, 78-75, when Kevin Floyd’s 3-point attempt in the final seconds failed him, going into the basket and rimming back out just before the buzzer.

Ricky Butler rebounded and looked to pass for one more attempt, but even had there been time, Floyd already had turned away in disappointment.

Floyd’s final three-point attempt was the Anteaters’ 26th of the game. It could not have been closer than it was, but it was a miss just the same.

“I thought (Fullerton) did a nice job,” said Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan, whose team had taken a 77-73 victory in the first game between these teams. “They deserved to win. We just got beat.”

Irvine (9-12 overall, 6-6 in conference play) got beat, in large part, by Wayne Williams, the Titans’ freshman point guard, who led his team with 20 points, including four of four three-pointers.

Fullerton, which had fallen behind by nine in the first half when Irvine hit five three-pointers in a row, held a 74-72 lead with 1 minute to go after Irvine’s Butler tipped in an offensive rebound.

But Williams knocked down four free throws in the final minute.

Williams, who hit a game-winning 25-footer at the overtime buzzer against UNLV, hit both ends of a one and one with 27 seconds left for a 76-72 lead.

But then Rod Palmer knocked down a three-pointer with 16 seconds left, cutting it to 76-75.

Williams, fouled by Floyd after the ball was inbounded to him with 14 seconds left, made two more free throws.

Derek Jones, the Titans’ senior team captain, had walked to the line to cradle Williams’ head in his arms after he made the first of his four free throws. After his third, Jones gave Williams a playful push.

“I’m beginning to love Wayne more and more as each game goes by,” Jones said. “I love the guy to death.”

Besides the game-winner against UNLV, Williams hit a 35-footer at the halftime buzzer against UC Santa Barbara, starting that upset on its way. And for good measure, he hit a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer against Irvine.

Fullerton (11-10, 6-6) turned its one-point halftime lead into a six-point lead early in the second half.

But shortly after, Palmer (15 points) hit a three-pointer, followed by Jeff Herdman, who had five three-pointers among his 17 points. Two more Herdman three-pointers kept Irvine out front, but then Fullerton’s Mark Hill drove, hit the shot and was fouled. His free throw made it 57-55, and Fullerton never trailed again.

Irvine tied the score three more times--on three-point shots by Mike Doktorczyk and Floyd and an offensive rebound basket by Palmer.

A layup by Williams put the Titans ahead 70-68, and they staved off the three-pointers to win.

Had Irvine won, the Anteaters would have a four-game winning streak, their longest in two years. As it was, the teams fell into a three-way tie with Fresno State for sixth place in the conference.

The first time Fullerton and Irvine met this season, Mulligan spotted a hole in the middle of the Titans’ matchup zone defense, and Butler exploited it, scoring 23 points.

This time, the Titans, collapsing on every pass inside, closed that hole at the outset. But with one hole patched, another burst open. The Anteaters hit five three-pointers in a row before settling for a mere two.

By the time the Titans’ snapped Irvine’s string of three-pointers, the Anteaters led, 17-12.

Fullerton’s Sneed, a quick enough study, abandoned the zone for a man-to-man defense, and Fullerton crawled back into it, tying the score, 29-29, on Mark Hill’s backwards dunk off a steal and a spectacular save by Cedric Ceballos.

Hill scored 19 points, but Ceballos, the conference’s leading scorer, was held to 11 points on five-of-22 shooting. “Ceballos was flat,” Sneed said. For once, it didn’t matter,