Full Effort in Second Half Lifts Titans Over Portland

The first half was basketball agony for Cal State Fullerton.

“We just didn’t have a whole lot of life,” Titan Coach Bob Hawking said. “I don’t know whether it was the week off, or a week of finals or what.”

But Fullerton finally got its offense in gear in the final 10 minutes Saturday night against Portland, and managed to win its fifth consecutive game this season in Titan Gym without a loss, 72-61.

The Titans (5-3) were outrebounded by 15 and shot only 34.6% from the field in the first half. “It seemed to take us 20 minutes just to get back into the swing of things,” Hawking said.

But Fullerton elevated its defense in the second half, and improvement on offense seemed to follow. The Titans shot 56.3% in the second half to finish at 46.6%, and ended up with a 46-44 rebounding advantage.

“We were so stagnant on offense in the first half, we felt we had to do something to get it going, so we turned up the heat on defense,” Hawking said.

The Titans won despite an off-night by their two senior guards, Chris Dade and Chris St. Clair.

Dade, the second-leading scorer in the Big West Conference, was held to a season-low 11 points, and St. Clair had 12. Dade was only three of 13 from the field, St. Clair two of eight. They were a combined two for eight on three-point shots.

Sophomore forward Ike Harmon and redshirt freshman center Matt Caldwell picked up the slack. Harmon finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Caldwell, a reserve, scored 16. He scored six of Fullerton’s first eight points at the start of the second half. Fullerton trailed at halftime, 35-27.

“I knew we really needed to play some strong defense in the second half,” Caldwell said. “The first half we were back on our heels. But then we got some steals early in the second half and that opened it up.”

Hawking thought Caldwell’s contribution was one of the keys to the Titan comeback. “He gave us a real spark at that point,” Hawking said.

Portland, however, managed to hold on to its lead until St. Clair made two free throws to put Fullerton ahead by a point with seven minutes left. That began a streak of eight consecutive Titan points.

DeVaughn Wright got a layup, Craig Whitehead a fast-break drive, and Dade connected from outside for a 60-53 Titan lead with five minutes left. Fullerton’s pressure defense opened up the game even more at that point, and Harmon scored eight of 10 Titan points to take Fullerton out of Portland’s reach.

“Fullerton played a lot better in the second half,” Portland Coach Rob Chavez said. “They did a better job of attacking our press to get some easy layups.”

Titan regular Mark Richardson sat out most of the game after suffering a deep thigh bruise in practice last week, but came in with slightly less than nine minutes left. He made a key steal and helped Fullerton on defense down the stretch.

“Mark’s a blue-collar defender, and we missed that in the first half,” Hawking said. “We decided at game time that we weren’t going to play him, but I asked him in the second half if he could give some minutes, and he helped us stabilize some things after he came in.”

The victory gave Fullerton a 3-1 record against West Coast Conference teams. The Titans also defeated Loyola Marymount and San Diego at home, but lost on the road at Pepperdine.

It was the third loss against the Big West for Portland (6-4).