Titans’ Futility in Utah Continues

Cedric Ceballos never won here. Neither did Derek Jones, Richard Morton, Henry Turner, Joe Small or Wayne Williams. Not Kevin Henderson, not Ozell Jones, not Mark Hill, not Agee Ward.

The litany of names grew longer Thursday.

Bruce Bowen, Aaron Sunderland, Kim Kemp, Sean Williams.

Four more Cal State Fullerton Titans played in Logan for the last time in their careers, and they left this place glad if they never see it again.

It wasn’t just a loss, it was an 86-61 defeat at the hands of Utah State, a team that had lost six games in a row and learned last week that Coach Kohn Smith’s contract won’t be renewed after the season.

No Fullerton team has won in Logan since 1982, when Leon Wood was a sophomore.

Thursday night, the Titans lost to a team that pulled a 45-point turnaround after losing by 20 in Fullerton last month.

“This is the first time this season we’ve been blown out. We were blown out,” said Fullerton Coach Brad Holland, whose team fell behind by 18 in the first seven minutes behind a barrage of Jay Goodman three-pointers. The Titans, whose previous largest margin of defeat was 14 points at Cal State Long Beach, dropped to 11-6, 6-4 in the Big West Conference.

“(The Aggies) played as well as we played poorly,” Holland said. “They got every loose ball, every rebound. They made shots. We didn’t.”

Utah State (7-11, 4-6) outrebounded the Titans by 10 in the first half, doubled them by midway through the second, and finished with a 51-27 margin.

Twenty of them were on the offensive boards.

The Aggies shot from the gate behind Goodman’s four three-pointers in the first 4:06, and made 10 of 16 three-pointers in the game, shooting 62.5% from beyond the line against a team that was holding opponents to 29.6%.

Fullerton shot 40% from the field, and made only 19 of 32 from the line.

Three Titan starters finished with season-low scoring totals. Don Leary had two points, Kemp had three, Williams had five.

The inside tandem of Kemp and Williams couldn’t have played much worse than they did. They didn’t score, they got out-rebounded, and the Aggie offense ran rough-shod over them.

“We had no inside defense,” Holland said. “There was no inside defense, no outside defense, no nothing.”

Holland’s biggest complaint was with his team’s effort.

“I told the team I don’t mind losing, I do mind when we don’t step up and play. There’s no reason for that to happen but it did.”

Reasons were hard to come by.

“We didn’t come in here focused like we should have, and the score told it,” Sunderland said.

Sunderland finished with 22 points, but he found himself on the bench quickly after letting Goodman break open for NBA three-pointer after three-pointer.

“Aaron wasn’t getting it done,” Holland said. “Why keep beating your head against the wall? Pull him out and let him think about it a while.

“He got picked, but you’ve got to do a better job of putting yourself in a position not to be picked.”

The Titans didn’t do a good job of much.

The Aggies’ arena, the Spectrum, is at an altitude of 4,688 feet and held 5,773 fans Thursday. Holland, making his first visit, didn’t see players gasping for air; he only saw them playing without effort.

“It’s something about this air, this Utah snow,” Sunderland said. “It’s just like any other place, it’s just . . . Utah. The last 10 years we couldn’t win here. Now it’s 11. So. . . . “

“I feel it’s a myth, but. . . .” Bowen said.