FULLERTON
Cal State Fullerton lost to Cal State Northridge, 82-74, in a crucial Big West game Thursday in front of 1,983 at Titan Gym.
The Titans missed a chance to take over first place in the Big West, falling 1 ½ games behind Northridge with two conference games left to play. Fullerton plays host to Long Beach State then after heading to Cal State Bakersfield for a nonconference game, closes out the regular season at UC Irvine.
The Titans’ undoing came in a series of missed 3-pointers, including two by Josh Akognon in the final two minutes, and free throws. They shot 13.6 from the arc – their lowest this season – and were 25 of 37 from the foul line.
Notes and Quotes
…A crowd of 1,983 – the largest to see a Fullerton home game this season – packed the stands at Titan Gym “It would have been a great win, not just for where we all our, but for the environment. That was so much fun to be in there. I was thinking, five years ago sitting in there and there was nobody here and now you have all those people cheering like that,” Coach Bob Burton said.
“That’s what I feel more disappointed about than anything is having all those people who could have turned it into a home-court advantage for us. I don’t know if we were used to that.”
…When Northridge coach Bobby Braswell went looking for help to avenge this season’s earlier loss to the Titans, he went straight to the top. “I prayed a lot about it last night. I had peace about it coming into the game.”
MVP
The award goes to orange-clad Fullerton students, who showed up in droves for the first-place showdown at Titan Gym. Question is, will they be back on Saturday?
Must have been some halftime speech
Northridge players were on the floor, so were the referees. But the Titans didn’t emerge from the locker room until two minutes before the second half started. Coach Bob Burton had plenty to talk about, notably, Fullerton’s 1 for 11 shooting in the first half from the 3-point line.
How important is Scott Cutley?
When Scott Cutley went out of the game with his second foul at the 8:05 mark, the Matadors put together a 12-1 run, going inside for several layups. Before that, they struggled to penetrate the Titans’ defense.
JANIS CARR/The Register
Whoa, Titan Basketball Packing the Stands!
The Register is reporting that one of the largest crowds packed the stands at Titan Gym to watch the Titans take on Cal State Northridge.
While the crowd of 1,983, the largest crowd to see a CSUF home game this season, gave the Gym a big league atmosphere, the Titans lost to Northridge by 8-points.
This leaves the Titans a game and a 1/2 out of first place in the Big West Conference.
I wish the basketball program could reach the level of the CSUF Baseball program. Then the Titans could build a larger fan and donor base for a possible return to college football.