Titans Use Fantastic Finish to Win in Overtime

Of all the dire situations Cal State Fullerton has faced this season, this one, in the final seconds of the final regular-season game Saturday, seemed the most hopeless.

Cal State Long Beach had a three-point lead with 4 seconds remaining, and the 49ers’ Tyrone Mitchell was ready to inbound the ball under the Titans’ basket.

Mitchell looked for an open man, saw none and passed the ball toward a crowd of players.

And the players separated, like the waters parting for the latest Fullerton miracle. The ball bounced once, and into the waiting hands of Mark Hill, who steadied himself and lofted a shot from the top of the key. Three points. Overtime.

That spelled victory for the Titans, 4-0 in overtime games in conference play this season. Cedric Ceballos scored all six of the Titans’ points in the extra period and Fullerton took a 68-66 victory when Long Beach’s desperation shot from backcourt missed by a mile as time ran out.

It had taken still one more clutch play to win, Ceballos’ driving lay-in with 6 seconds left in overtime.

“Coach wanted me to shoot a jump shot, but the lane just opened up,” Ceballos said.

Long Beach had one timeout left, but never called it. Marco Fleming, who powered his way to 27 points for the 49ers, had the ball but seemed uncertain, and handed it to Mitchell just in time for Mitchell to launch a 50-footer.

The victory ended the Titans’ regular season with a 15-12 record, 10-8 in the Big West Conference.

Picked to finish ninth in the conference, the Titans finished in a three-way tie for fourth with Utah State and Long Beach State. Because those teams split against one another, by virtue of its victory over champion Nevada Las Vegas, Fullerton claimed the fourth seed, and will play fifth-seeded Utah State in the second round Thursday.

Long Beach (13-14, 10-8) will play UC Santa Barbara Thursday.

For Fullerton’s acting coach, John Sneed, it was just one more in a series of spectacular finishes that have helped make him the overwhelming public favorite for the job.

“If John Sneed doesn’t deserve to be the head coach at Fullerton, I don’t know who in the heck in this world does,” Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington said. “Tell all those Fullerton people: He can coach.”

Fullerton seemed to have lost its chance at this one in the late going, when trailing by two with 4 seconds remaining in regulation, the Titans’ Marlon Vaughn was called for a foul as Long Beach tried to inbound the ball on Fullerton’s end. Vaughn, going for the ball, ran over Bobby Sears. An official blew his whistle, and signaled the foul intentional or flagrant, giving Sears two shots and awarding the possession to the 49ers. But Sears made only one of the shots, and the 49ers never successfully got the ball inbounds, regulation ending instead in Hill’s shot.

Hill and Ceballos said afterward that they thought Mitchell was trying to bounce the ball off of Ceballos’ back, and recover it himself. The ploy didn’t work.

“We should have thrown it long,” Harrington said. “It’s easy to look back. It wasn’t one play. It took an unbelieveably big-time shot to tie it up.”

While the other four Titans fronted their men, their own backs to the ball, Hill was the safety, facing the play.

He picked up the loose ball, appeared to check his feet behind the line, and let fly.

“I just pulled up,” Hill said. “ I knew I was pretty far out.”

Thus went another astounding finish for the Titans, who lost a double-overtime game to New Orleans but have beaten Pacific, UNLV, San Jose and Long Beach in overtime.

But weren’t the Titans worried this time?

“I’m an optimistic person,” said Hill, who scored 21 points.

Ceballos had 23.

“They’ve never given up,” Sneed said.

This one, they had to win without Wayne Williams, the hero of other games. Williams twisted his right ankle in the second half, and although he came back briefly, he finished the game on the bench.

“He wanted to play, but even though he could move up and down the court, he couldn’t cut left and right,” Sneed said.

Trainer Jerry Lloyd said Williams has injured the ankle before coming to Fullerton, and that there would be no prognosis on his availability until today.

“The last thing he said to us was to win this one,” Hill said. “He had tears in his eyes.”

Simple enough, the Titans won it, and in the process won 10 games more than some had predicted they would this season.

“We think now we could have done a little better when we look back,” Hill said. “But we’re very happy, and we’re just looking forward to the tournament.”