CS Fullerton’s Fade Continues in Loss to UC Santa Barbara : Titans: After leading by two points in the final minutes, they fall, 68-58, pushing their skid to three consecutive games.

Poof, the not-so-magical Cal State Fullerton basketball team pulled another disappearing act in the final minutes, losing to UC Santa Barbara, 68-58, Saturday night after holding a two-point lead late in the game.

Thursday night it was Cal State Long Beach outscoring the Titans, 20-5, in the last five minutes for an 85-71 victory. Saturday night it was Santa Barbara outscoring Fullerton, 16-6, in the final 5 minutes 54 seconds of a Big West Conference game played in front of 4,623 in the Events Center.

That’s three consecutive losses for Fullerton, which fell to 10-14, 6-9 in conference.

About the only thing dissolving quicker than the Titans is the team harmony that players raved about after a three-game victory streak that concluded with an 86-68 victory over UC Irvine Feb. 15.

“A lot of people have given up already,” Titan forward Bruce Bowen said. “They don’t care whether we win or lose. I couldn’t tell you why.

“I come from a family that enjoys winning, but some people here really don’t give a damn. They say they do, but it’s all fake. Even though we’re in a losing streak, people are joking around like we’re winning.”

Nothing like a little momentum going into the final two weeks of the season and the Big West Conference tournament--not to mention the final weeks of Coach John Sneed’s three-year contract, which expires after the season.

These same players were actually entertaining thoughts of winning the conference tournament last week. Now, it will seem a major accomplishment for them to remain together long enough to compete in the tournament.

“There’s a lot of ego trips on this team,” Bowen said. “People get jealous of others if they do well. At beginning of the year there was all this talk about love and togetherness. Where is that now? People don’t want to sacrifice things to win.

“We have the type of team where if we’re down and out and you ask someone to sacrifice something, they won’t. It boils down to setting a screen, helping a man through a pick. If we get beat on defense, people will say, ‘Well, my man didn’t score.’ There’s no ‘I’ in team. It’s terrible man, terrible.”

So were the Titans in the final minutes Saturday night. Fullerton led, 52-50, with 5:54 remaining but fell apart from that point.

Michael Meyer’s three-pointer put Santa Barbara (17-6, 10-4) ahead, and Sean Williams’ offensive foul turned the ball over to the Gauchos. Sam Robson’s two free throws put Santa Barbara ahead, 55-52, and his block of an Agee Ward shot led to Lucius Davis’ slam that made it 57-52 with 4:11 left.

Ward missed two free throws, and Santa Barbara’s Ray Kelly missed the front end of a one and one, but Davis grabbed the rebound and scored for a 59-52 lead.

Ward’s two free throws made it 59-54 with 3:26 left, but the Gauchos scored the next eight points, four of which were set up by Kelly steals, to take a commanding lead, 67-54, with 1:36 left.

Davis, the conference’s leading scorer, led Santa Barbara with 26 points, Meyer added 10 points and eight rebounds, and Kelly had seven points, 12 assists and three steals.

“There were a lot of mental breakdowns in the end, and you can’t afford to make those mistakes because Santa Barbara is the type of team that really capitalizes,” Sneed said. “In crunch time, the last three or four minutes of a game, they’re one of the best teams in the league.”

Wasted in the loss was a fine performance by Fullerton point guard Aaron Sunderland, who rebounded from Thursday’s nine-turnover night to score 21 points, including three of four three-pointers. He also had four assists.

“He made some big buckets in transition, and without some of those, we wouldn’t have been close with five minutes to go,” Sneed said. “But in those last five minutes, we didn’t complete plays and the other team did.”

Ward added 16 points but was limited to 26 minutes because of foul trouble, and guard Joe Small, who appeared to be regaining his touch with 19 points against Long Beach Thursday, scored only two points, making one of five shots.

The Titans shot 48.9% from the field compared to Santa Barbara’s 41.5%, but the Gauchos outrebounded the Titans, 38-26, and hammered them on the offensive boards (18-8). Fullerton finished with 22 turnovers, the most since a 25-turnover performance against Portland Dec. 14.

But poor statistics don’t appear to be Fullerton’s major problem these days. Attitude is.

“All I’ll do is keep playing hard,” Bowen said. “I can’t go out with a negative attitude like some others. I’ve got to keep playing hard.”