Titans Turn Over Old Leaf, Lose Again

Long Beach State and center Travis Reed made it look easy Saturday night.

But the opponent was Cal State Fullerton, and the struggling Titans have made several teams look like world-beaters this season.

The Titans committed a season-high 27 turnovers--20 of them in the first half--and the 49ers rolled to a 78-54 Big West Conference victory in front of 2,311 at the Pyramid.

It was the eighth consecutive loss for Fullerton (1-11, 0-2 in the Big West) in the Titans’ worst start since the 1964-65 season when Fullerton finished 1-25.

Long Beach (8-6, 2-0) won for the fifth time in its last seven games, boosted by Reed’s 26-point performance.

Reed, a 6-foot-8 junior transfer from UCLA who sat out last season, made 11 of 15 shots from the field and had nine rebounds. He also had several two-handed dunks.

“Reed is a heck of a player,” Fullerton Coach Donny Daniels said. “He’s so big, but he has a great touch. If he had come straight to Long Beach, he would have been an MVP already.”

Guard Ron Johnson scored 11 points for the 49ers to go with six steals and five assists. Long Beach had 15 steals.

“We must have given up at least 16 points in the first half off of turnovers,” Daniels said.

Fullerton had shown some improvement in its ball-handling recently, committing a season-low 10 turnovers Thursday in a loss at Pacific, but the Titans reverted to their old problems against the 49ers.

Fullerton played without one of its top guards, freshman Ryan Dillon, sidelined because of a pulled leg muscle. Dillon had played despite the injury at Pacific, but was held out of Saturday’s game.

Titan center Matt Caldwell missed his third consecutive game because of swollen lymph nodes. Caldwell is at his parents’ home in Arizona waiting for results of medical tests. Another potential starter, junior Brandon Campbell, chose to take a redshirt year last week because of continuing problems with a sprained knee.

Ike Harmon and David Castleton each had 13 points for the Titans.

The Titans challenged only briefly in the first half before the 49ers took control. Long Beach shot 60.7% from the floor in the first half to take a 38-22 halftime lead.

The Titans trailed by five points midway through the first half after a three-point play by Kevin Richardson, but the 49ers moved to a 12-point lead after a series of Fullerton turnovers. Long Beach turned several of them into easy fast-break baskets.

Long Beach Coach Wayne Morgan said he was pleased with his team’s overall effort.

“Travis played well offensively,” Morgan said. “The last three games Travis has been effective when he’s passing the ball back out. He’s finding other people. He’s helping himself by helping other people.”

Daniels said it was obvious that his team was outmanned.

“Long Beach is a good team,” Daniels said. “They won a lot of games last season. But we knew it was going to be tough for us. We were outmanned. Probation does things to a program, and it crippled Fullerton’s program.”

Fullerton has lost 22 of its last 23 games, dating to last season.