Fullerton Coasts to an Easy Victory

Cal State Fullerton jumped out to its biggest halftime lead under third-year Coach Donny Daniels and cruised to a 74-56 victory over visiting Morris Brown on Monday night.

Guard Ralphy Holmes led the Titans (1-2) with 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Center Pape Sow scored 16 and had a game-high 10 rebounds. Reserve Forward Bron Groomes made all seven of his shots and finished with 15 points and six rebounds in 16 minutes of play. Guard Anthony Bolton made only one of 10 shots, but had five assists.

Forward Reshard Alonza scored 18 points and had nine rebounds and guard Anthony Adams had 17 points and six rebounds for Morris Brown (1-3), which is 5-28 since moving to Division I last season.

Fullerton, which held only six halftime leads last season, led, 40-26, at the break and pushed that to 55-31 with 12:40 left on a two-hand putback by reserve Jamal Forcheney. Morris Brown never got closer than 13 points after that.

“It was nice to have that lead,” Daniels said. “But it was even better that we had a lead at five minutes and a bigger lead at 10 minutes and then 15 minutes. We sustained the lead. We didn’t have many of those last season.”

The victory was Fullerton’s largest over a Division I opponent since the Titans defeated San Jose State by 24 points early in the 1999-2000 season.

The Titans, who play host to Pepperdine on Wednesday, held a 46-33 rebounding edge over the Wolverines, but made only four of 18 three-point attempts, with Bolton missing all six of his. Fullerton has made only nine of 46 three-pointers overall.