Fullerton Turns It On Down Stretch, Defeats Pepperdine

With slightly less than 14 minutes left in the game, Pepperdine led Cal State Fullerton by eight points, and it looked as though the Titans were about to come apart at the seams.

It was so bad that John Williams’ open dunk shot rattled out of the basket, and DeVaughn Wright missed the two-foot follow.

But Fullerton suddenly managed to turn it around at that point and went on to a 65-54 nonconference basketball victory Saturday night in front of 921 in Titan Gym.

The Titans (5-2) outscored the Waves, 26-7, during an 11-minute span in the final 12 minutes, handing Pepperdine (1-8) its seventh consecutive loss.

“We were in control three-quarters of the game, but we didn’t do it in the quarter that counts,” Pepperdine Coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Fullerton did a great job coming down the stretch.”

Titan Coach Bob Hawking gave a lot of the credit for that to Williams, who finished with 21 points, all but six of them in the second half, and guard Ali Nayab, who came off the bench to score 15.

Williams ran off six consecutive points to get Fullerton back in gear, and Nayab made a layup and free throw that put the Titans ahead to stay at 51-48 with slightly more than five minutes left.

“We were trying to get Williams the ball earlier, but they did a good job of fronting him and working behind him,” Hawking said. “We were able to get to him more in the second half and that really helped. And Ali gave us a spark. Someone has to be able to do that coming off the bench.”

Williams said Marc McDowell’s foul trouble in the second half helped him get more room inside.

“I knew he had three fouls starting the second half, so I wanted to take it right to him,” Williams said. “He was playing back on his heels after that.”

McDowell was Pepperdine’s leading scorer with 13 points. He fouled out with 4 minutes 15 seconds left.

Pepperdine kept guard Chris Dade out of double scoring figures for the first time this season, though he made an important three-point shot to boost Fullerton’s lead to nine with less than two minutes remaining. Dade, who finished with seven points, managed to get off only two shots in the first half, and didn’t get his first field goal until two minutes into the second half.

“I thought Pepperdine did a good job on Dade the whole game,” Hawking said.

The Titans shot only 25.9% in the first half and trailed, 25-21, at halftime. Fullerton shot 37.3% for the game, but the Titans were helped by a 39-36 rebounding advantage and 17 free throws in 27 tries. Pepperdine was 11 for 20 from the line and shot 43.2%. from the field.

“We knew Fullerton was a good perimeter-shooting team,” Romar said, “so I thought we did a real good job on them in the first half. We didn’t give them a chance to get set on their threes. We had a 10-point lead a couple of times.”

Romar thought Fullerton’s press was particularly effective in the second half. “We were rattled by it,” Romar said. The Waves had 24 turnovers compared to 18 for the Titans.

“We were very lackluster in the first half, our own worst enemy,” Hawking said. “Their intensity was much higher than ours was in the first half. You play a team like Pepperdine that is 1-7, and they play like a wounded animal. But fortunately, our kids have responded with the chips down and they did it again this time.”