Fullerton’s King Leads Way to Win

Faced with an 11-point second-half deficit on the road with the crowd jumping in its Big West Conference opener, Cal State Fullerton Coach Bob Burton didn’t order up anything strategic or use something magical to stir a comeback.

Everything was left to the basics in the end Tuesday night and Yaphett King made the Cal State Northridge home gym his playground. King led the rally in regulation and finished off the Matadors in overtime with the game-winning basket in a 71-70 for the Titans.

King scored eight of his season-high 16 points in the last 3 minutes, 39 seconds of regulation, including his penetrating layup with 7.9 seconds left to force overtime. The senior forward then went with a similar drive to the basket to give Fullerton (5-3, 1-0) the lead with 8.6 seconds remaining.

“Their defense was taking us out of everything, so you kind of just have to take what the defense gives you,” King said.

Northridge’s Ian Boylan got the ball on the final possession and found a wide-open Davin White on the left wing, but the guard missed his three-point shot. Matador Coach Bobby Braswell said his team gave the game away long before that.

“We had an eight-point lead with 3:58 or something left in the game and we told our guys in the timeout that all we had to do was win this last chunk,” Braswell said.

Boylan blamed himself and the team after Northridge (2-7, 0-1) grabbed a 59-48 lead on Thomas Shewmake’s three-pointer with 5:37 remaining but squandered it.

“When you’re up by that much, you got to play defense and get stops,” said the forward, who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Northridge had more turnovers -- 12 -- than points at the midpoint of the first half before using its defense to turn things around.

The Matadors kept up the pressure by scoring 14 of the final 16 points before halftime.

“It didn’t look like we had a chance to win in that first half,” Burton said. “Their defense was so good. We couldn’t run any plays. It was the same defense in the second half and our guys finally just started playing.”

Bobby Brown led Fullerton with 19 points, Jamaal Brown added 13 and Ralphy Holmes had 12.