Road Remains Titans’ Enemy

It’s about time no one is surprised when UC Santa Barbara beats a team picked to finish above the Gauchos in the preseason polls.

And that includes Cal State Fullerton, which can’t seem to find the formula for winning on the road.

The Gauchos manhandled the Titans on the fast break and kept Ike Harmon out of double figures in scoring for the first time this season on the way to a 73-54 Big West Conference victory Thursday night in front of 1,429 in the Events Center.

It was the seventh victory in the last nine games for Santa Barbara, which started the season 0-8 under first-year Coach Bob Williams. The Gauchos, picked last in the Western Division before the season, boosted their conference record to 5-2. Santa Barbara (7-10 overall) won only four conference games last season, and was 7-19 for the season.

The Gaucho victory along with Long Beach State’s loss to Boise State put Santa Barbara in first place in the Western Division. Fullerton (9-8, 3-4) was left with its seventh loss in eight road games.

The Gauchos’ B.J. Bunton claimed the upper hand in the matchup with Harmon. Bunton scored a game-high 18 points, and helped hold Harmon to six points, well below his 15.6 average. It ended Harmon’s string of 19 consecutive double-figure games.

“Our defense was as good as it has been all season,” Williams said. “We thought the key matchup of the game would be the one between B.J. and Harmon. We thought if he could handle Ike we would be all right. Ike is quick, but B.J. is bigger and stronger.”

Harmon made only two of 10 shots from the floor with Bunton guarding him most of the time.

“He’s a good ball handler, and he’s quick, so I tried to gap him,” Bunton said. “I wanted to take his penetration away.”

But Harmon wasn’t the only Titan player who struggled. The Titans shot only 29.6% for the game and made only six of 33 shots (18%) in the second half. Santa Barbara shot 51.7% from the floor, 60% in the second half, and had a 44-34 rebound advantage.

“When you shoot like we did, you’re not going to beat many people on anyone’s schedule,” said Titan Coach Bob Hawking, who was an assistant under Williams for two years at UC Davis before moving to Fullerton. “Ike usually has a way of compensating, but he didn’t have the answers this time.”

Among Fullerton’s starters, only guard Mark Murphy reached double figures with 11 points and he was only three of 10 from the floor. Reserves Josh Fischer and Matt Caldwell each had 11 also.

Erick Ashe, a Gaucho guard who played last season at Fullerton College, gave Bunton strong backing with 17 points. Williams started three guards, with Ashe moving inside on offense. That quickness helped the Gauchos force 20 turnovers.

“I played against all the Fullerton guys in the summer and Jason Cunningham was my roommate,” Ashe said. “So I had to hear about them coming up here, so I just wanted to make this a big game.”

Cunningham was disappointed he wasn’t at his best because of a touch of the flu. He took only one shot and was held scoreless for the first time this season.

“We just played badly,” Cunningham said. “We didn’t rebound, and Bunton got a lot of baskets on us on the transition game.”

Bunton hurt the Titans early with four dunks during Santa Barbara’s first 11 points. That rush gave the Gauchos an early 10-point lead, but the Titans stayed close in the first half even though Harmon didn’t score his first point until he made a free throw with slightly more than five minutes left in the first half.

Harmon didn’t get his first field goal until only a minute, 45 seconds remained in the first half.

“I just played like trash,” Harmon said. “We didn’t execute on our game plan, and I made it easy for them to guard me. But they’ll have to come to our house the next time, and we’ll see what happens then.”