Sunderland Gets Into a Groove, and So Do Titans : College basketball: Point guard scores 25 points to lead CS Fullerton past UC Santa Barbara, 66-64, and into third-place tie.

The campus is in Fullerton, but for three consecutive games, it has been Sunder Land.

Aaron Sunderland, Cal State Fullerton’s wisp of a point guard, was brilliant again, and the Titans won their second game in a row, moving into a third-place tie with Pacific in the Big West Conference.

It wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but when you miss five free throws in the final 1:19, it never is. Still, the Titans defeated UC Santa Barbara, 66-64, in front of 2,579 in Titan Gym.

“You’re not always going to win pretty,” Fullerton Coach Brad Holland said. “If you can win ugly once in a while, get the job done, I’d rather have that than lose a game and play well.

“It was a gut check, one of those games we had to step up and find a way to win.”

On a night when Fullerton’s leading scorer, Bruce Bowen, was held to a season-low five points, Sunderland scored 25, grabbed six rebounds and dished off five assists, and forward Kim Kemp collected a career-high 18 rebounds.

Sunderland has now scored 75 points in Fullerton’s past three games.

“When you get it going like he has, you become confident,” Holland said. “He’s confident in his perimeter game and in his penetrating and passing. He hasn’t shot well until the past five games, but he has a pretty good stroke. When you have a point guard who can shoot from the outside, it really opens up their penetration moves.”

It was the first time in nine years that Fullerton (14-8, 9-5) swept the season series from Santa Barbara (13-9, 6-8).

Bowen, averaging 18 points, was ice cold from the field (two for 10) and just as frigid from the free throw line (one of five), but the way Sunderland has been playing lately, nothing seems to matter.

On Saturday, he scored seven consecutive Titan points during one stretch to drive Fullerton’s lead from one, 44-43, to six, 51-45, and then came up with six consecutive points during another stretch to increase the Titan lead from two, 53-51, to six, 59-53.

As crunch time hit, nobody played taller than Fullerton’s little man (6 feet 1 in your program; 5-11--maybe--on your tape measure).

During this time, Sunderland scored 13 of 15 and 16 of 21 points for Fullerton as the Titans scrambled to keep a six-point lead.

The most telling moments for Sunderland--and probably the sequence that finished off Santa Barbara--came with 1:19 to play and Fullerton ahead, 62-57.

Sunderland stepped to the line after being fouled by Santa Barbara point guard Ray Kelly, made the first free throw, missed the second, slithered his way through the lane, somehow came up with the rebound under the basket . . .

And put it back in.

Fullerton led, 65-57, and even a three-pointer by Idris Jones, pulling the Gauchos to within one, 65-64, with 17 seconds to play, couldn’t save them .

The Gauchos’ final chance was stopped when--who else?--Sunderland stole a pass with three seconds left and Fullerton ahead, 66-64.

So in the end, forget the two-of-seven free-throw shooting in the final 1:19 and credit Sunderland with the save.

“We’ve won our share of games with clutch free throws but we almost lost tonight because of poor free throw shooting,” Holland said. “Maybe we were due to have a bad night. I can guarantee you we’re going to be shooting a lot of free throws in practice next week.

“Fortunately, Aaron came up with a big steal because they definitely had the momentum. That steal was huge--it gave us a chance to solidify the win.”

Fullerton finished a poor 12 of 26 from the free-throw line.

“Oh my goodness,” Holland groaned, scanning the statistics sheet.

It was a foul first half for Santa Barbara. The Gauchos trailed at halftime, 32-31, and seemed to be in deep trouble mainly because they couldn’t escape the officials’ whistles.

Fullerton made eight first-half free throws to Santa Barbara’s seven--the difference on the scoreboard--and the Gauchos lost another four offensive possessions when they were called for offensive fouls.

It got worse for Santa Barbara. Center Doug Muse was saddled with three fouls by halftime, and backup center Kyle Milling somehow picked up four.

Still, the Gauchos waded through the fouls to go on an 8-3 run beginning with 8:57 left in the half when the Titans went 4:56 with only one basket--a Sunderland three-pointer.

Center Sean Williams ended the Fullerton drought, though, with a five-foot baseline jumper with 4:01 left in the half to send Fullerton on a run of its own.

Williams followed the jumper with a dunk and a free throw, kick-starting an 11-3 Fullerton run during which the Titans grabbed control, 30-25.

Williams scored 10 points during a half in which Fullerton shot 47.8% and held Santa Barbara to 37.9%.

And suddenly, with only four Big West games left, the Titans are tied for third.

“It means we’re working hard together,” Kemp said. “We knew we wouldn’t finish ninth, but we weren’t going to go around saying we’re going to finish first.

“We always thought we’d be in the thick of things, and now we are.”