Titans Are Young but Deep

For each of the last three seasons, the Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team has relied heavily on one player.

The Titans had the NCAA’s top three-point shooter in the 1993-94 season with forward Autumn Hollyfield, who made 110 baskets from behind the arc.

Two seasons ago, Fullerton had the nation’s top scorer in center Koko Lahanas, who averaged 26.8 points and scored 48 in a game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

And last season, guard Shayla Bradshaw averaged 18 points and finished her four-year career as the school’s second leading scorer behind Genia Miller, an All-American in 1991.

Coach Deborah Ayres hopes the Titans won’t have to rely so heavily on only one player this season.

The top returning scorer, Dee Braxton, is hoping for the same thing.

“I think this season everyone will have a chance for their share of the spotlight,” Braxton said. “We’ll be a lot deeper, and we should be able to get scoring from more people. I’m excited about it.”

A 6-foot center who can also play forward, Braxton averaged 13.4 points and led the team in rebounding as a freshman last season.

Andrea Thieme also started 24 of 27 games at point guard as a freshman, averaging 7.7 points. Ayres expects her to benefit from the year of experience and cut down on her turnovers. Forward Justine McMahan (6-0) also started late last season as a freshman and averaged 7.6 points.

Ayres thinks additional offensive firepower will come from newcomer Kristin Sigg, a transfer who averaged 22 points last season for Glendale (Ariz.) College. Jackie Bucher, a 6-1 freshman forward from Denver, also is expected to provide immediate help.

Erin Whiteside (6-1) will rejoin the team after being a redshirt her freshman season because of knee surgery. Forward Kim Cram (5-11) is the team’s only senior.

The Titans were 7-20 last season, 4-14 in the Big West Conference, but Fullerton lost seven games by five or fewer points late in the season. The Titans open the season Sunday at Cal State Sacramento.

“We’re still a young team, but we hope we can do better than a year ago,” Ayres said. “The year’s experience that our players received should help, and we should have more depth this season. And we think they’ll continue to get better down the road as we add to this group.”

Ayres has not produced a winning season in the previous four. The closest she came was two years ago, when the Titans were 14-15.

The team’s last winning year came in 1991 when the Titans were 25-8 under Maryalyce Jeremiah, now Fullerton’s associate athletic director.