Titans Stick to Business in Victory Over Pacific

Coach John Sneed, feeling under the weather with the flu, turned on his heel to chastise a heckler behind Cal State Fullerton’s bench.

The scoreboard clock didn’t move a tick even though roughly a minute’s worth of action passed on the court.

The fourth-leading scorer in the Big West Conference made only two of 10 shots. And Fullerton blew away listless Pacific, 76-62, Thursday night.

It was merely business as usual at Titan Gym, where nothing can be taken for granted in the Titans’ crazy, mixed-up 1991-92 season.

“We’re trying to keep a positive outlook for the next three weeks,” Titan guard Joe Small said. “It’s more like, ‘Let’s end the season on a positive note.’ No more negative words to the media. No more being selfish. Because we do have to play each other for three more weeks.”

Small even seemed to take a demotion to the bench in stride. Sneed, hoping to shake up things, started Greg Vernon in Small’s place against Pacific.

“It didn’t really affect me at all,” said Small, who suffered through a two-point performance in a 68-58 loss to UC Santa Barbara Saturday. “It was coach’s decision.”

Said Sneed: “I think it was a good move for our team. Joe was ready every time I called on him.”

Two halves of Pacific was all inconsistent Fullerton needed to feel well again. The Titan victory stopped a three-game losing streak as forward Agee Ward had 28 points, easily picking apart Pacific’s soft zone defense. Sean Williams added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Small had nine points for the Titans (11-14, 7-9 in the Big West).

Pacific’s Dell Demps, the conference’s No. 4 scorer, missed eight of 10 shots from the field and scored a season-low six points. Demps, who came into the game averaging 18.9 points, failed to score in double figures for only the third time this season.

With Demps misfiring, the Tigers’ scoring fell to Walsh Jordan and Tony Amundsen, who each had 13 points.

“It was a case where their athletes played great and had good intensity and we played terrible,” Pacific Coach Bob Thomason said.

Pacific (10-14, 6-9) trailed by as many as 21 points late in the game and shot 38.8% from the field and 56% at the free-throw line. Fullerton shot 47.5% from the field and outrebounded Pacific, 47-28.

“I didn’t think we had a dead spot anytime during the game,” said Sneed, who has been suffering from the flu since last week’s game at Nevada Las Vegas. “It was a solid 40 minutes.”

Sneed was wrong. It was probably closer to 41 minutes. For a while in the first half, time stood still.

With 6 minutes 29 seconds left in the half, Ward made one of two free throws. Pacific inbounded the ball, moved it upcourt, took a shot and had the ball knocked out of bounds. The Tigers inbounded it again, missed another shot and the Titans rebounded. Finally, Williams was fouled by Randy Lavender and made one of two free throws with 6:29 left in the half.

No one seemed to notice--the three officials included--or care. It was that kind of night.

Titan Notes

Former Titan All-American Leon Wood has left the Continental Basketball Assn.’s Rapid City (S.D.) Thrillers to join a professional team in Germany.

Wood, 29, began this season as a part-time assistant coach for the Titans, but left the team in early February to join the Thrillers, for whom he played in 1990-91.

Wood played in nine games for Rapid City, averaging about 10 minutes a game, before returning to Southern California Thursday. He will depart next Thursday for Germany and join a team in the Frankfurt area for the playoffs.

If the team is eliminated in the early rounds, Wood said he would rejoin the Thrillers for the CBA playoffs. He hopes to play in Europe next season, however.

Greg Vernon, starting in place of Joe Small at shooting guard, had two points in 14 minutes. Small played 25 minutes. . . . One reason the Titans haven’t lived up to their potential this season is their inability to put opponents away late in the game. Going into Thursday’s game, they had blown second-half leads in 10 of their 14 losses, including five leads with less than 6 minutes to play. . . . Next: Fullerton plays host to San Jose State in its final home game of the season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.