Titans Make Themselves at Home

Maybe Cal State Fullerton should play all its games in UC Irvine’s Bren Center. The Titans, after all, have made themselves at home there.

Of course, maybe it’s not the arena. Maybe it’s the opponent.

The Titans trounced the Anteaters, leaving little behind but rubble in a 76-64 victory in front of 1,661 Wednesday night. It was Fullerton’s eighth victory in the last nine games in the Bren Center.

Josh Fischer had 19 points and 11 rebounds, both career highs. Kenroy Jarrett scored 15, Mark Murphy 13 and Ike Harmon 13. Harmon also had a career-high 14 rebounds.

Don’t be fooled, these were two teams scrambling to get a foothold in the Big West Conference’s soft Western Division. It’s just that Irvine couldn’t bring itself up to even that level on this night.

“I think Irvine plays a real competitive game and forces us to play hard,” Harmon said.

And he said that with a straight face.

The Anteaters’ highlight? At least they didn’t blow a 17-point lead, as they did Saturday in a 53-52 loss to Boise State. They have now lost 18 of their last 21 conference games.

“We didn’t respond to the challenge,” Coach Pat Douglass said. “When you lose a tough game, like we did Saturday, you have to respond. We came out like we were feeling sorry for ourselves. It was like, ‘Oh, we lost a tough game and we’re not going to play.’ ”

Fullerton (8-8, 3-2) started the game with a 10-0 run. Irvine (8-8, 1-4) didn’t score until Marek Ondera hit a three-pointer four minutes into the game.

Ondera finished with a career-high 24 points, making 10 of 12 shots. The rest of the Anteaters had 13 field goals.

Back-to-back dunks by Ondera--he had seven dunks--gave Irvine an 18-17 lead with 6:15 left in the half. Nothing good happened after that for the Anteaters.

It was so bad for the Anteaters that they shot 63% in the second half and Fullerton extended a 28-22 halftime lead to 69-53 with 3:20 left. Irvine, which came into the game ranked third nationally in free-throw percentage, made just nine of 20 from the foul line.

Fullerton had a 44-25 rebound edge, including a 16-7 advantage on the offensive boards. Fullerton scored 19 second-half points on offensive rebounds.

The Titans had previously outrebounded only three teams, San Diego State, Simon Fraser and Loyola Marymount--teams found quicker checking the RIP list than the RPI ratings.

Even Patten College outrebounded the Titans. Irvine couldn’t.

“They kicked our butts on the boards, we didn’t make our free throws and we didn’t stop anybody defensively,” Douglass said.

Other than that, everything went pretty well.

This was the Titans’ third consecutive victory, but they meandered just as much as the Anteaters through the first half. The second half belonged to Fischer, who has been slowed by a knee injury this season. He had seven offensive rebounds, scoring nine second-half points on second or third efforts.

“We’ve been talking a lot about rebounding and preaching a lot about it,” Fullerton Coach Bob Hawking said. “And Harmon and Fischer both got career highs.”

Things weren’t cheery on the other side.

“Like always, all we can do it move on,” Ondera said. “We have to learn from the negative things, and there were a lot of them tonight.”