Small, Titans Shoot Down Drake : College basketball: Guard hits six three-pointers and finishes with 24 points as Cal State Fullerton pulls away for 70-58 victory.

As poorly as others played Saturday night, Cal State Fullerton’s Joe Small stuck to his usual method of operation--he simply kept shooting.

Small’s 24 points, including six three-point baskets, bailed out Fullerton and helped the Titans to a 70-58 victory over Drake in front of 1,428 at Titan Gym.

After Fullerton gave UCLA all it could handle in a six-point loss Monday, this one figured to be a comedown, and it was.

The Titans (4-4) seemed to sleep-walk through the first 25 minutes before Small woke them with his long-range shooting. Small and Fullerton Coach John Sneed said Drake’s matchup zone defenses caused most of the Titans’ troubles.

Impatient early on, Fullerton struggled to maintain any sense of consistency. Even Small couldn’t help matters much in the first half, making just four of 10 shots.

The Titans ran out to a quick, 11-4, lead, but lost it soon enough as Drake rallied to go ahead, 16-15, with 6 minutes 50 seconds left in the first half. By halftime, Fullerton led, 33-28, despite 40.7% shooting.

“It was a real chess match,” Sneed said. “They threw about four different zones at us. Every time we’d adapt, they’d go to a different alignment.”

With 15 minutes left, Sneed chucked his zone offense in favor of a motion offense he normally uses against a man-to-man defense. That seemed to work, setting Small up for open jump shots behind the three-point line and allowing Fullerton’s front line players some clear space near the basket.

Small made all three three-point baskets he attempted in the second half, finishing six of 11 on threes and seven of 14 overall.

“Small did a great job shooting outside,” said Drake Coach Rudy Washington, a former Verbum Dei High School and Compton College coach. “We were hoping he wouldn’t get hot from out there.”

It had been a while since Small shot as well as he did Saturday. Against UCLA, he was six of 18 (one of eight in the first half). Against Cal State Northridge , he didn’t start for the first time as a Titan because of the flu. And against Portland, a diamond-and-one defense held him to 16 points.

“I knew I couldn’t shoot any worse than the UCLA game,” Small said. “I tried to come out early to shoot a little (before Saturday’s game). I just kept shooting it.”

He began to click starting the second half, and Fullerton never led by less than seven points after his three-pointer gave the Titans a 45-36 lead with 15:58 left.

Point guard Aaron Sunderland had 11 points and seven assists and forward Agee Ward added 10 points for Fullerton. Ward had 30 points in the 86-80 loss to UCLA, but had a difficult time against Drake’s zones.

“Agee had a couple of big games coming in,” Sneed said. “They (Drake) definitely scouted us very well.”

Sunderland and Ward were the only Titans to score in double figures.

Kevin Sams, who was suspended for Drake’s first three games, didn’t start but scored 20 points to lead the Bulldogs (2-3). Center Adrian Thomas, who had 14 points, was the only other Drake player to score in double figures.

A 6-foot-7 forward, Sams had 13 points in the second half, taking advantage of some shaky defense by the Titans’ Sean Williams. Sams had six consecutive points at one point, before Sneed made a defensive switch, taking Williams out of the game and putting Ward on Sams.

It worked, and Sams had only five points the rest of the way.

Notes

Fullerton plays its final nonconference game at Houston Monday night before opening Big West Conference play by playing host to Nevada Las Vegas Thursday. Tickets are still available. . . . Agee Ward played 40 minutes for the first time in his career. . . . The last time Cal State Fullerton and Drake played, the Bulldogs won at Des Moines, 101-57, in the 1970-71 season. It was two seasons after Drake went to the Final Four.