Titans Surprise UC Santa Barbara

Here was something new: Just before tip-off Thursday night, Cal State Fullerton Coach Brad Holland saw not five, not six, not seven, but eight Titans suited up in front of him.

No doubt buoyed by such a large contingent, the Titans went right out and surprised UC Santa Barbara, 66-57, in front of 4,014 in the Thunderdome.

For much of the past two weeks, because of injuries and illness, Fullerton (4-12, 2-6 in conference) has been forced to practice with four or five players. Against Pacific last week, the Titans had seven players--and only six were healthy.

Practices have been, well, how would you describe them?

“I don’t know, I wasn’t at practice all week,” said guard Greg Vernon, who came back from the flu to score 10 points. “When I was in there on Wednesday, the guys were going hard playing two on two.”

Freshman Josh King, still recovering from oral surgery for impacted wisdom teeth, didn’t make the trip to Santa Barbara. Vernon played after missing practice all week because of the flu. Darren Little returned after missing several practices and last week’s Pacific game with the flu.

David Frigout, who also missed the Pacific game, learned during a bone scan Monday that he has a stress fracture in his left foot. He played 23 minutes Thursday (four points, one rebound), and will have to play the rest of the season in pain.

But the person who made the most dramatic comeback was Titan guard James French. After having missed his last 15 three-point attempts, French scored a career-high 22 points.

French, who led the Big West in three-point percentage in December but had gone the past three games without a basket, nailed five of six threes against the Gauchos (7-11, 3-5), including three of four to help put the game away in the second half.

The Titans shot 53% on Thursday--only the third time this season they were better than 50%.

“I tried to express to our team just how proud I am to coach them,” said Holland, who is 2-0 at the Thunderdome after previous Titan teams had lost nine in a row here. “We haven’t won a lot of games, but our two road wins (at Nevada and Santa Barbara) are real special. As much as I try and motivate them, they motivate me.”

The Titans aren’t the only ones who have been having difficulties lately. The Gauchos’ loss Monday at Nevada Las Vegas was the end of a period during which they played 13 games--10 on the road--in six weeks. During that span, they were at games and in vans, airplanes, buses, airports, hotels and foreign arenas for a total of 24 days.

Early on, it looked like a game between two teams that have had their share of troubles this season. Although the Titans held Santa Barbara scoreless for the game’s first 4 minutes 27 seconds, Fullerton soon went into a drought during which it scored three points in a 9:24 stretch. The Gauchos outscored Fullerton, 13-3, during that time, which is most of the reason why Santa Barbara led at the half, 24-21.

But the Titans were consistent in the second half and, thanks in part to Danny Robinson’s baseline drive with 8:07 left and French’s three-pointer with 1:30 to play, outscored the Gauchos, 24-13, to finish the game.

“To tell you the truth, I think (being short on players) brings us together,” Vernon said. “We look to the bench and see we’re not that deep and we know we need to play harder and smarter.”

Not that Holland wouldn’t mind having a few extra players...