Titans Get Tentative, Lose to Pacific, 73-69 : Basketball: Offense sputters after strategy is changed to run time off shot clock before attacking zone defense.

Partly by design, partly by a lack of execution, the Cal State Fullerton offense sputtered to a halt midway through the second half Saturday night, and the Titans lost to Pacific, 73-69, in front of 3,290 in the Spanos Center.

Despite a sub-par offensive game by Agee Ward, who was held to a season-low six points, Fullerton was able to build a 44-36 lead after Joe Small’s three-pointer with 14 minutes 18 seconds remaining.

But Titan Coach John Sneed, sensing his players were spending too much energy on defense, pulled the throttle back on the Fullerton offense, instructing players to work about 20 seconds off the 45-second shot clock before attacking Pacific’s zone.

The strategy was meant to take some time off the game clock and give the Titans a breather--they were already without starting center Sean Williams, and several of their players were in foul trouble.

But the Titans seemed to lose their rhythm. They eventually attacked the Tiger defense, but not with the zeal they had in the first half. Their offense became stagnant, and the Titans went more than three minutes without a field goal.

Pacific, meanwhile, finally began to find its range from outside. Tony Amundsen, who scored a career-high 20 points, made two three-pointers, and Dell Demps added another to trim the lead to 46-45 with 10:54 left.

The Tigers then went ahead, 53-52, on another Amundsen three-pointer with 6:47 to go. Pacific scored the next four points to make it 57-52 and extended the lead to 61-54 with with 2:10 left.

The Tigers, the worst free-throw shooting team in the conference with a .612 percentage, then made 12 of 16 foul shots in the final 1:51 to hold of the Titans and improve to 7-10, 3-5 in the Big West Conference. Fullerton also is 7-10, 3-5.

“We didn’t shoot quickly by design,” Sneed said. “We were using a lot of energy on defense, and I wanted them to rest for 20 seconds, and, after a few passes, I thought they attacked well.”

Point guard Aaron Sunderland, however, thought the Titans became too tentative.

“We stopped running and that hurt us,” said Sunderland, who scored 13 points and had six assists. “We should have attacked more, but the coach said to run some seconds off the clock, pull back a little bit, and we did. That’s what hurt us.”

So did the virtual absence of Ward, who had been averaging 23 points on the road this season. Ward, a 58% shooter, missed several inside attempts in the first few minutes and made only three of 15 shots in the game.

The Tigers collapsed their zone on Ward, making it difficult for Fullerton to get him the ball, and when he did, Ward was usually double- or triple-teamed.

“They pushed me off the block a lot, and every time I touched the ball I had three people on me,” Ward said. “I forced a lot of shots that I probably shouldn’t have taken. Still, I thought we played pretty well.”

Ward is usually the Titans’ zone-buster.

“Normally Agee has a field day in the middle of a zone, but he didn’t have that tonight,” Sneed said. “He stepped out further than normal on his shots, whether he was on the baseline or in the middle.”

Fullerton was led offensively by Bruce Bowen, who scored 16 points but made only five of 16 shots. Kim Kemp added a career-high 14 points and Small had 13 on five-of-15 shooting for the Titans, who shot 38.8% from the field.

Randy Lavender added 18 points and Dell Demps had 14 for Pacific, which shot 45.2% despite going more than 11 minutes between the first and second halves without a field goal.

The Tigers took a 28-25 lead on Lavender’s basket with 7:36 left in the first half but didn’t make another field goal until the 16:21 mark of the second half, when Randy Morphew made a three-pointer.

Pacific then whittled away at Fullerton’s lead and made the clutch free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory.

“We showed a lot of poise,” Tiger Coach Bob Thomason said. “We chipped away at their lead and made our free throws, and I’m kind of pleased with that.”