Fullerton Suffers Shooting Drought, Loses : Basketball: Titans hit 34% from field in a 79-65 loss to Santa Clara at Fresno State tournament.

Cal State Fullerton came down with a bad case of sub-par shooting Friday night against Santa Clara in the opening game of the Fresno State Classic and the Titans never recovered.

“Like any disease, it got to be contagious,” Fullerton Coach Bob Hawking said. “We just didn’t shoot well.”

It was almost an epidemic, as far as the Titans were concerned, in the first half. Fullerton shot 27%, and managed only three baskets in 20 attempts from its guards. After that, Santa Clara was never in serious trouble and went on to a 79-65 victory, its second of the season without a loss.

The Titans fell to 1-1 after winning its season-opener against Cal State Northridge. In the tournament’s consolation game at 6 tonight, Fullerton will meet Texas Arlington, which lost to Fresno State, 89-67.

“Santa Clara was a lot better than Northridge, though,” Hawking said. “It was a completely different level. They dominated the game. They outrebounded us, their field-goal percentage was quite a bit higher and they turned the ball over less than us.”

Combine that with Fullerton’s 34% shooting for the game and the outcome was clear-cut. The closest the Titans came was 10 points late in the second half, but the Broncos went back into high gear.

“Our guys looked like they were about a quart low,” Hawking said. “And for this team to be competitive, they have to be at a high energy level, and we just didn’t have that tonight. The kids competed at a higher level in the second half, but by then we’d dug too deep of a hole for us . . . “

One of the few bright spots for the Titans was the play of senior center Winston Peterson, who tied his career scoring high with 26 points. Peterson kept the Titans in the game with strong inside play. Peterson was nine of 17 from the field, six for eight from the line and had a game-high 12 rebounds.

“I felt I played a lot better tonight than I did against Northridge,” Peterson said. “But I still felt they out-hustled us to too many rebounds.”

Guards James French, Chris St. Clair and Chris Dade each had only one basket in a combined 21 shots and accounted for only nine points between them. Chuck Overton had 12 points, but he was four for 13 from the field.

Santa Clara shot 45% for the game, but Coach Dick Davey felt strong defensive play was the key to his team’s victory.

“Fullerton did about what we expected them to do,” he said. “Our problem was that we could never get that killer instinct to put them away in the second half.”

Senior guard Steve Nash, the Broncos’ top returning player, led Santa Clara with 21 points. Guard Marlon Garnett, who played at Los Angeles Hamilton High, had 19.

“We played a lot better in this game that we did in our first game this season against Pacific,” Garnett said. “Steve and I both got some good shots tonight, and we both knocked them down.”

Fullerton’s first half was a nightmare. The Titans went the first three minutes without a point and found themselves behind 7-0 before they scored on a rebound basket by Overton after four consecutive missed shots. Santa Clara’s fast break was in high gear early and it took a 12-2 lead.

Fullerton made only three of 12 shots in the first eight minutes while Santa Clara built a 17-8 command.

Santa Clara did a good job of getting the ball inside and built a 19-point lead at 31-12 cushion with eight minutes left. The Broncos hit 11 of 18 from the field during that stretch.

The Titans managed to cut the lead to 10 points at 35-25 with less than a minute to go in the first half, but Garnett’s three-pointer put Santa Clara up 38-25 at halftime.

Fullerton never recovered and the Broncos stayed in control throughout the second half.

“We’ll get better,” Hawking said. “We’re a young team and we’re still finding ourselves. We can learn from this game. Santa Clara exposed some of our weaknesses at both ends of the floor.”