Fullerton Can’t Run With Rams, Loses, 84-55

This was not Boyd Grant basketball as you remember it.

Boyd Grant basketball in his days at Fresno State was deliberate basketball. It was a matchup zone defense and an almost tediously patient offense. It was a score in the 50s and--often enough--a Fresno State victory.

Cal State Fullerton took its undefeated team into Colorado State’s Moby Arena Monday and ran into a different breed of team. It was a team that played some man defense, that wanted to run, finally running the Titans ragged in an 84-55 victory that spoiled Fullerton’s hopes for its best start since the Titans became a Division I team.

The loss also spoiled Fullerton’s hopes of going into Saturday’s game against UCLA undefeated.

Fullerton hadn’t lost so badly since the 1987 season, when Nevada Las Vegas beat the Titans by 34.

Nobody had played Fullerton closer than 11 points this season. But the end of the Titans’ early-season run came quickly. Colorado State led 10-0 before the game was three minutes old.

“They just ran a clinic on us on both ends of the court,” Fullerton Coach John Sneed said. “We got outplayed in every aspect of the game.”

Mike Mitchell, who played at Santa Ana Mater Dei High School and Fresno State before switching to Colorado State to play his final season under Grant, didn’t miss a shot in the first half. He made seven of seven from the field, including a three-pointer, and made his only free throw. Jamie Hines, a quick, smooth-moving guard, didn’t miss a shot either, making all four he took. And Mark Meredith, another guard, hit five of seven three-pointers, tearing up the Titans’ defense.

And that was the first half. After 20 minutes, Colorado State led, 44-30. The Rams had hit 68% of their shots, including 70% from three-point range.

Colorado State (6-2) was coming off a loss to Montana in which it scored only 47 points.

Grant, who had watched his team shoot in 36% against Montana, was flabbergasted.

“I really can’t even explain it. I really can’t,” he said.

Fullerton’s Cedric Ceballos, who had been averaging 26 points a game, was held to 14, his lowest total of the season.