Victory Is Vernon’s Personal Crusade : Basketball: Titan guard takes rivalry seriously, scores 20 points in 101-95 triumph over Irvine.

Cal State Fullerton senior guard Greg Vernon is the only player remaining from last season’s team and maybe the only Titan who puts any special significance on the Fullerton-UC Irvine rivalry.

After all, the only thing at stake during Thursday night’s battle in the Bren Center was pride. The winner’s “prize” was definitely in the booby category: second-to-last place in the Big West.

But Vernon seemed energized down the stretch. He scored on a reverse layup, an 18-foot jumper, a driving bank shot, another layup, three free throws and an exclamation-point dunk for the final points of the game as Fullerton (7-17 and 5-11 in conference) hung on for a 101-95 victory in front of 1,729.

“We felt like this was a must game for us to prove to ourselves and the rest of the conference that we aren’t a last-place team,” Titan Coach Brad Holland said. “We’ve had a lot of battles with Irvine and this was another good one. I felt like we needed to win this one to solidify our finish and get ready for the conference tournament.”

Vernon, who had four points in the first half, finished with 20 points. He has scored 16, 20 and 16 points in the second halves of Fullerton’s last three games.

“I just try to step up when I see that we need it, being a senior and all,” Vernon said.

Irvine (6-17, 3-12) saw a nine-point first-half lead evaporate and then lost an 11-point advantage in the second half as the Titans erupted for 62 points after the intermission.

“We just didn’t get enough stops to make a difference,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “I mean they almost had their (scoring) average in the second half. I felt like we had no defensive integrity at all.”

The Titans, who have now won three seasons in a row in the Bren Center, got career scoring highs from Winston Peterson (26) and Josh King (20). They combined to make 18 of 25 shots from the floor as Fullerton shot 55% from the field.

Anteater center DeForrest Boyer made eight of 10 field-goal attempts to score 20 points and guard Chris Brown made nine of 15 three-pointers to score 30, but Irvine’s lack of defense--especially in the second half--was disastrous.

The Anteaters seemed intent on working the ball inside in the early going and Baker started junior Zuri Williams at point guard in favor of senior Lloyd Mumford, who has a habit of free-lancing out of the game plan sometimes. Mumford didn’t enter the game until more than six minutes had elapsed, but he immediately scored on a driving layup--Irvine’s sixth inside shot of the early going--to give the Anteaters a 17-14 lead.

Irvine put together an 8-0 run midway through the first half and led by nine (31-22) when Brown drilled a three-pointer. Holland, incensed because he felt Irvine’s Joe Hannon had been in the key too long, picked up a technical foul with 4:18 left before the intermission. Mumford made both free throws to give the Anteaters a 35-26 lead.

But the Titans, relying on the work underneath of Peterson and the outside shooting of freshman King, whittled away at the Irvine advantage. Peterson and King scored 16 of the Titans’ final 19 points in the first half and Irvine led by only two (41-39) at the half.

Irvine shot 65% from the floor in the first half, but the Titans made seven of nine free throws to stay close.

The Anteaters took another tack at the outset of the second half. Brown made two three-pointers and Mark Odsather hit one during the first two minutes of play and Irvine jumped ahead, 52-41, with 18:11 to play. But the Anteaters, who saw most of their nine-point early first-half lead evaporate in a hurry, were clinging to a 57-56 margin less than three minutes later.

When Darren Little scored on a fast-break dunk with 10:47 to play, the Titans had their first lead (64-62) since midway through the first half.