SOUTHLAND ROUNDUP

Cal State Fullerton 85, UC Irvine 66--The Titans (9-13, 4-8) beat the Anteaters (7-15, 4-8) for the second time this season and earned their first Big West Conference victory at Titan Gym after five consecutive home-court conference losses.

It was Fullerton’s fourth consecutive victory over Irvine and fifth in the past six games between the teams. And it also turned out to be the Titans’ most decisive conference victory at home since a 25-point victory over Nevada in 1994.

“Add up all of our conference victories this season, and the margins don’t add up to 19 points,” Titan Coach Bob Hawking said. “This was a big game for us, but they’re all big when you’re fighting for a tournament seeding.”

The victory left Fullerton and Irvine tied with Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, all with 4-8 records, in the Western Division. Long Beach State is alone in second place behind Pacific.

The victory, however, gave Fullerton the tie-breaker advantage over Irvine if the two teams finish with the same conference record.

Chris Dade’s 17 points led the Titans, but Chris St. Clair also emerged from his shooting slump with 12 points.

“Our inside players didn’t do much all night,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said.

Adam Stetson led Irvine with 16 points.

Most of Irvine’s points came from outside with Adam Stetson getting 16, Junior Bond 15 and reserve Brian Scoggin 13.

The Titans shot 51.7% from the field to only 31.6% for Irvine, which lost its seventh game in its past eight and fifth in a row.

Irvine shot only 20.7% from the field in the first half on six of 29, but stayed in the game by making 12 of 16 at the line.

The Anteaters didn’t get their first field goal until more than six minutes into the game, and were behind by 10 points at 23-13 before they started working their way back.

Harmon picked up his third foul with less than nine minutes gone, and sat out the rest of the first half.

Irvine came back to cut the Titan lead to 27-25 on a three-pointer by Bond and Parker’s steal and layup, but the Titans managed a 32-25 halftime lead on Jason Cunningham’s layup and free throw.