North Texas Beats Titans on Late Shot

Cal State Fullerton guard Mark Murphy called it “a heartbreaker.”

For the Titans, it seemed a fitting description for an 84-82 Big West Conference loss at North Texas Saturday night that snapped a three-game winning streak.

Guard Kyle Crawford tossed in a three-point shot with three-tenths of a second left that gave North Texas (6-11, 4-2) the victory.

It came after Kenroy Jarrett and Murphy each made three-pointers in the final 26 seconds to give Fullerton a one-point lead.

As soon as Crawford’s shot went in, Murphy broke toward the Titan basket. Ike Harmon fired a perfect inbounds baseball pass to him at the other end of the floor, but referees waved off the play as soon as Murphy caught the ball on a bounce under the basket. His hurried shot bounced off the rim but it wouldn’t have counted anyway.

“It was the right call by the official,” Titan Coach Bob Hawking said. “The rule is that with three-tenths of a second or less left, you can only score with a tip, but not a shot. If there had been four-tenths of a second left, he could have caught the ball and shot it.”

The Titans (8-9, 3-3) shot 64.5% in the first half--making their first 10 shots from the field--and led by 17 before North Texas stormed back in the second half. The Eagles shot 52.9% in the second half after 36.8% in the first half. North Texas, which had upset New Mexico State at home earlier in the week, overcame a 32-point effort by Harmon, one point below his three-season career high. Murphy had his career best with 27, making 10 of 16 shots from the floor, including six of 10 three-pointers.

“Our guys played their guts out,” Hawking said. “But we were up against it all night because of foul problems. And rebounding was a telling factor again. You have to do a whole lot of things right to overcome those numbers.”

The Eagles had a 48-32 rebounding advantage. The Titans were particularly hurt by reduced playing time for 6-foot-9 sophomore center Josh Fischer in their eighth loss in 10 games on the road.

Fischer played only 14 minutes because of foul problems and scored one point. He picked up two fouls in the first two minutes and his third later in the first half, and he fouled out with 5 minutes 27 seconds left.

Chris Davis led North Texas with 25 points and Deginald Erskin had 23, but it was Crawford who had the big shot.

“I think they were looking for Chris or Erskin to take it,” Crawford said. “They probably were expecting us to try to pound it inside too, but I got a great pick and was open.”

Davis had made two consecutive shots to give North Texas a five-point lead with 37 seconds to play, but Jarrett’s three-pointer cut it to two points 11 seconds later. Fullerton quickly fouled Calvin Williams, and he missed both free throws, before Murphy’s three-pointer put Fullerton ahead with 10 seconds left.

“North Texas turned up the heat a lot in the second half at home, and we had some unforced errors,” Hawking said. “And we didn’t shoot our free throws as well as we have been.”

Fullerton was 12 of 21 at the line.