Long Shot Sinks Titans at Buzzer : Basketball: Loyola Marymount’s Williamson fires from half court to beat Cal State Fullerton, 80-77.

Jim Williamson says he and his Loyola Marymount teammates will frequently take half-court shots before basketball practice starts. “They do it just clowning around,” Coach John Olive said.

Williamson took one for real just as he hit the center line Friday night only a fraction of a second before the final buzzer, and it went straight into the basket, giving the Lions an 80-77 victory over Cal State Fullerton in front of 1,779 in Gersten Pavilion.

It climaxed a furious finish in which Williamson, a 5-10 sophomore guard, also connected on a 15-foot fall-away jump shot with 25 seconds left to give Loyola a three-point lead. Fullerton called time out, and reserve David Harrison hit a three-pointer to tie the score with seven seconds left.

All Williamson had time to do was take a pass, get into range and let it fly from more than 45 feet away.

“We call them geese when we do it before practice because they’re mostly hook shots and we look like a bunch of geese,” Williamson said, smiling. “I just let that one go with one hand. I couldn’t believe it went in. That’s something you just dream about.”

Williamson had gone 0 for nine from the field and was scoreless earlier this week when the Lions took their second consecutive loss at UC Santa Barbara, but he had the hottest hand when it counted to lift Loyola to a 7-3 record for the season, one more victory than the Lions had all last year.

“Good players make big plays and Williamson did that this time,” Fullerton Coach Bob Hawking said. “He’s an outstanding player, but I thought we did a pretty good job on him until there at the end.”

Williams had 11 points for the game. All five Loyola starters were in double figures with center Ime Oduok leading the way with 20 points and nine rebounds. Forward Wyking Jones had 16 points, Mike O’Quinn 13 and Robin Kirksey 12.

Fullerton (3-6) made a late run after falling behind by as many as 14 points with slightly more than eight minutes left. Loyola went on a 24-3 scoring tear in the second half, before the Titans battled back by hitting six consecutive three-point shots late in the second half.

Center Winston Peterson led the Titans with 16 points and four rebounds. Guard James French had 12 points and Harrison finished with 11, going five for eight from the field. The Titans were more than overdue to shake the shooting doldrums after hitting only 38.7% through their first eight games, and they seemed on the road to putting their past behind them with 53.6% in the first half. The Titans finished with 50.9% from the floor, compared to 47.1% for the Lions. Loyola had 13 more shots and a 40-27 rebounding advantage.

After the Lions led briefly at 19-17, the Titans went on top, 20-19, midway through the first half and built the lead to eight points at 29-21 on Chris Dade’s fast break layup. Fullerton’s biggest lead of the first half was nine points at 36-27 on Peterson’s basket with 3:24 left. But Loyola got two baskets from Jones in the last minute to cut the deficit to 40-35 at halftime. The Lions were a different team at the start of the second half. They scored 10 consecutive points for a quick 47-44 lead on a string of fast-break baskets.

“They picked up their intensity a lot in the second half,” Hawking said. “They’re very physical for not being a huge team. They really pounded the ball inside on us during that one stretch in the second half.

“But I was really proud of the effort our kids made in this game. They had nothing to hang their heads about. They played some great defense, and even in a loss you could tell they were coming together. They didn’t quit when they got behind in the second half. We have to just keep plugging away.”