Titans Roll Past Lamar Behind Ceballos’ 28

Anyone looking for a little of that edge-of-your seat basketball Cal State Fullerton played last season would have been disappointed Friday night in Titan Gym.

There was no suspense at all, unless you count waiting to see how long it would be before Tom Parada, the Titans’ 5-foot-6, 130-pound freshman walk-on, made it into the game.

That was with just under four minutes remaining in a 104-67 victory over Lamar in the Titans’ season opener in front of 2,124.

“I don’t think we could have written a better script for our home opener,” Fullerton Coach John Sneed said. “But I’m not confused. Every game won’t be a blowout.”

Last season, Fullerton opened with a two-point victory over Utah, a mild upset for a Titan team whose head coach had resigned in the preseason and that didn’t have a starter back. It wasn’t until the fourth game of the season that the Titans played a game decided by more than four points. By season’s end, Fullerton played six overtime games, and won five. They kept them exciting when they shouldn’t have been able to, beating Nevada Las Vegas in overtime, and they kept some exciting when they shouldn’t have, period, letting Pacific and San Jose State force overtimes before defeating them.

But there was none of that to start this season.

“I thought we played extremely well the first half,” Sneed said.

With a pressing defense that contributed to Lamar’s messy ballhandling and 18 first-half turnovers, Fullerton pulled away quickly.

Cedric Ceballos, who led the Big West Conference in scoring last season with a 21-point average, had 19 points at halftime and finished with 28 points and 14 rebounds.

“We were excited, you could tell,” Ceballos said.

While Fullerton played with four starters back from last year, Lamar was playing with only one back from a 12-16 team, and looked unsteady most of the game.

David Jones, formerly of Verbum Dei High School, was the lone returning starter, and he provided most of Lamar’s offense, scoring 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting, five of nine from three-point range.

“We didn’t handle their press very well,” said Lamar Coach Tony Branch, a former Louisville player in his second season as coach. “Fullerton is a great basketball team. If they play like that every night this year, they will beat a lot of teams. I see how they beat UNLV last year.”

But besides getting a victory on the books, Fullerton learned some things about its team, most of it good.

The best news to Sneed had to be the play of his bench.

This one was well over by halftime, when Fullerton had a 49-28 lead after John Sykes’ basket on an offensive rebound at the buzzer.

By then, Fullerton already had played 10 players.

And by the time it was over, Sneed played all 13, right down to Parada, whose entrance caused more of a stir even than any of Ceballos’ moves.

“When Tom Parada came off the bench, the crowd got going,” Ceballos said.

Among the notable performances by newcomers:

--Freshman Aaron Wilhite, a 6-foot-7 inside player, scored 16 points, making six of seven field goals and grabbing five rebounds in only 18 minutes as a reserve.

“I was real impressed with Wilhite tonight,” Sneed said.

--Sophomore Agee Ward, a 6-5 forward who was ineligible under Proposition 48 last season, scored six points and had a strong rebounding performance, pulling down seven in 14 minutes. But he also had five turnovers.

--Dareck Crane, a transfer from Orange Coast College, scored six points and played well.

--Bruce Bowen, a 6-5 freshman swing player, scored nine points.

“You really saw our depth tonight,” Sneed said. “Crane, Bowen and Wilhite played well tonight.”

Fullerton began its season with a victory for the second year in a row, but this one was in stark contrast to last season, when the Titans began the season as a mystery to spectators and their coaches, if not to themselves.

“Last year we were very confident too,” said Mark Hill, who scored 12 points Friday, making only four of 12 shots. “If you’re not confident, you don’t have a chance to win.”

This season, there was a contrast between Fullerton and its inexperienced opponent.

“(Branch) has a young team,” Sneed said. “You throw a lot of new faces out there and it’s going to take a while. That’s going to benefit our team the first half-dozen games or so, having experience on the court.”

There wasn’t much suspense, but there weren’t many complaints.

“It’s a real morale booster to be able to play everyone in your season opener,” Sneed said. “We feel good about the win tonight. . . . Two years in a row we have won our season opener, and it feels good.”