COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Fullerton Women Tumble

The unranked women’s basketball team beat the ranked team in Cal State Long Beach’s University Gym Wednesday.

That used to spell upset, but who knows anymore?

It was No. 24 Fullerton that lost, despite Genia Miller’s 40 points and 15 rebounds, as Long Beach hassled the Titan guards to distraction in a 79-68 victory in front of 1,122.

These days, the 49ers’ University Gym is an arena that is home to an unranked women’s team for the first time since January of 1979.

One of the blows that knocked Long Beach (12-7, 7-3 in the Big West) from its usual perch was a 75-63 loss to Fullerton last month.

The Titans took one at their place, and on Thursday the 49ers took it back.

Fullerton climbed into the Top 25 in part on the strength of back-to-back home victories over Nevada Las Vegas and Long Beach last month. Now the Titans have lost to those teams in back-to-back road games.

“When we played Long Beach at home, they lost to us by about 12. We lost by 11 here,” Titan Coach Maryalyce Jeremiah said. “Then after that game Long Beach Coach Joan Bonvicini said she was embarrassed at the way her team played. Ditto.”

Fullerton (16-6, 9-4), frazzled by the pressure put on by players such as Dana Wilkerson and speedy substitute Serina Strange, had 14 turnovers at halftime, and finished with a season-high 26. Long Beach racked up 16 steals.

“I think they put lots of pressure on us, but I was very shocked we were intimidated as much as we were,” Jeremiah said. “Our guard play was deplorable.”

Michelle Hennessey, the Titans’ normally steady ballhandler, had nine turnovers, nearly six above her average.

Joey Ray, the three-point specialist, scored six points, making two of seven shots--and from Jeremiah’s perspective, too many mistakes.

Fullerton led by as many as nine points early, but then Strange and Marsheela Hairston came off the bench, helping the 49ers’ to a 10-0 burst highlighted by Hairston’s over-the-shoulder pass off a steal by Strange, ending with a layup by Kari Parriott, who scored 18 points. Wilkerson added 16.

Long Beach’s eight-point halftime lead grew to as many as 18 in the second half, partly because Fullerton went nearly four minutes at the outset without a basket.

A Titan rally stopped dead in its tracks with Fullerton trying to cut the lead to seven with just more than four minutes left. Claudette Jackson’s pass was knocked down by Penny Moore for a steal, and Hennessey commited her fifth foul on the other end.

Jackson scored 16 points, and had 17 rebounds.

For the second game in a row, Miller couldn’t save the Titans. Her career-high 44 points weren’t enough Monday in an overtime loss to UNLV.

In nonconference baseball:

UC Irvine 15, Chapman 8--With his team leading, 4-2, Irvine’s Matt Filson led off the sixth inning with a home run to start a seven-run inning. Twelve players batted during the inning and at one point the Anteaters had five consecutive hits.

Four Irvine hitters had at least three hits for the Anteaters (2-4), who had 22 hits off five Chapman pitchers. Pete Golaszewski went four for four with four run batted in and three runs scored and Dave Deiter was three for six with three RBIs.

Chapman (2-2) scored six runs in the ninth inning.