Fullerton Gets First Victory

Say this much for Cal State Fullerton: The inexperienced Titans will not go winless this season.

But their 80-66 victory over Irvine’s Concordia University, an NAIA school playing the first game against an NCAA Division I opponent in its 13-year basketball history, wasn’t one for the highlight film.

“I felt like in the first half, we played like a team,” Titan Coach Brad Holland said. “In the second half, we played like a bunch of individuals in a pickup game.

“We lost our focus defensively and Concordia did a great job playing together, finding the open man and hitting the open shots. We didn’t handle a 20-point lead very well.”

Fullerton built a 47-27 halftime lead, but the Titans went into cruise-control out of the locker room and Concordia cut the margin to nine, 55-46.

However, the Eagles (4-3) managed only one basket over the next 9:25 as the Titans (1-1) switched to a zone defense and bottled up the inside.

Holland said the Titans’ inconsistency had nothing to do with youth.

“I blame it on players getting a little selfish in the second half,” he said. “You hate to see it happen, but it did happen.

“We had way too many possessions where it was one pass or zero passes and then shoot it and then we don’t crash the boards.”

Winston Peterson led Fullerton with 18 points. Forward Vujadin.