Titan Woes Continue in Big Loss to Pacific : Basketball: Fullerton falls, 97-66, its worst loss in three years. Darren Little is the only bright spot.

Cal State Fullerton center Winston Peterson got the ball near the top of the key . . . and lobbed the ball inside to nobody.

Titan forward David Frigout drove baseline . . . and right off his foot and out of bounds.

Starting to get the picture?

It was that kind of game for the Titans Thursday night. They were outshot, outrebounded and flat out outplayed in a 97-66 loss to Pacific in a Big West Conference game at the Spanos Center.

The Titans (4-14, 2-8) suffered their worst loss since Jan. 1991, a 98-67 defeat at Nevada Las Vegas. The 97 points by Pacific (13-8, 7-3) was the most scored against the Titans this season.

Thursday night’s loss follows the Titans’ second-worst performance of the season, a 91-69 defeat at Long Beach State Saturday. And Titan Coach Brad Holland hopes his team isn’t making a habit of getting blown out.

“The most important thing is that we not carry this on into our next game (Saturday at San Jose State),” he said.

The only bright spot for the Titans was forward Darren Little, whom Holland benched for missing practices this week. Little responded with a season-high 23 points and didn’t challenge Holland’s decision.

“I had a paper to write for a class and I missed (practice),” Little said. “Coach made the right choice. He sat me down.”

The rest of the Titan starters might as well have joined Little on the bench.

Fullerton committed three turnovers and missed three of their first four shots while falling behind, 12-2, in the first 5 minutes 13 seconds. The Titans trailed by 27 at halftime and as many as 38 in the second half.

Pacific, which shot only 16% in the first half of a 76-69 overtime victory over Fullerton two weeks ago, hit 21 of 31 shots (66.7%) in the first half Thursday, including four of six three-pointers.

“Pacific proved that it can shoot the ball well at home,” Holland said. “Our defense wasn’t bad at times, but Pacific shot extraordinarily well.”

Tiger forward Charles Jones did most of the damage from the outside, hitting three three-pointers in the first half and finishing with 15 points, nine more than his season average.

And when Jones wasn’t blistering the Titans from the outside, Tiger center Glenn Griffin was pounding them inside. Fullerton’s Little couldn’t cover Griffin, nor could Frigout, nor could Peterson.

Griffin hit five of his first six shots and scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half. The Tigers cruised to a 49-22 advantage, their largest halftime lead of the season.

Griffin pulled down seven rebounds, as did Tiger forward Michael Jackson, who led them with 17 points. The Tigers outrebounded the Titans, 51-31, and outshot them, 53.3% to 42.6%.

“I told the players (afterward) that we have to let a game like this go,” Holland said. “We have to put it behind us. We have to regroup and get back to the basics.”

Basically, they need to do a better job of getting the ball to Peterson. The Tigers held Peterson, Fullerton’s leading scorer with a 15.8 average, to one point in the first half.