Titans Still Can’t Find Hoop, Lose

Numbers don’t lie, yet Titan Coach Bob Hawking was scratching his head after Cal State Fullerton’s 85-72 Big West Conference loss to visiting UC Santa Barbara Saturday night.

Four Titan players scored in double figures, the Titans played the Gauchos about even on the backboards and Fullerton even made 17 of 19 free throws.

But it was the same old problem, poor shooting, that plagued the Titan men’s basketball team Saturday night, and all season, for that matter. The Titans made only 23 of 66 field-goal attempts, despite guard Chris Dade’s 24 points and forward John Williams’ 19.

“It’s hard to win when you shoot 35%,” Hawking said. “For the most part, we got the shots we wanted, but that has been our Achilles’ heal. We’re just not a very good shooting team.”

Santa Barbara, however, had five players in double figures. The Gauchos made 18 of their first 24 field-goal tries and built leads as large as 13 points in the first half.

“They have a good team, a veteran team,” Hawking said. “The difference in maturity between them and us was obvious.”

The loss dropped the Titans (5-14, 4-7 in Big West) into a five-way tie for the sixth and final conference playoff spot. The Gauchos (10-9, 7-4) moved into third place with the victory, a half-game behind Long Beach State and UC Irvine.

“This used to be a conference where you always lost on someone else’s floor,” Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm said. “But with the parity that has come to the league, you can go into a place like this now and have a chance.”

It took more than chance for the Gauchos, who have won four of their last six road games, to overcome Fullerton. Lelan McDougal scored 20 points, and double-figure performances also included forwards Kealon Wallace (16) and Bakir Allen (15), center Mark Flick (10) and reserve guard Dane Prince (18). Wallace had a game-high 10 rebounds and guard Phillip Turner had eight assists. The Gauchos made 30 of 56 field-goal attempts.

“When you shoot 53% on the road, that’s a pretty good figure for anybody,” Hawking said. “We tried to contain their three-point game and we thought we could outrebound them this time, but we didn’t do that.” Santa Barbara had an edge on the backboards, 40-36.

The teams put on a three-point shooting display for much of the first half, making a combined 11 of 20 attempts.

The Titans used three-point shots by Chuck Overton and Dade to take a 17-16 lead, and when Dade drilled back-to-back three-pointers and then made a driving layup, the Titans held a 25-22 advantage.

But a three-pointer by Allen got the Gauchos rolling on a 16-3 run that included three-point baskets from McDougal and Prince. The only Fullerton points in the streak: A line-drive three-pointer from Kenroy Jarrett with 7:45 to go in the half.

Fullerton rallied in the second half, cutting the Gauchos’ lead to 55-52 on a three-point shot by Brian Thomas. But Santa Barbara regrouped, hit a couple of threes and with seven minutes remaining, the lead was back to 15 points.