Titans Put a Stop to Long Beach Jinx

FULLERTON — This was billed as a breakthrough season for Cal State Fullerton by Coach Bob Hawking.

And Monday night definitely was a breakthrough.

Fullerton, sparked by strong performances by John Williams and Chris Dade, ended its losing streak to Long Beach State at seven with a 78-75 victory in front of 1,632 in Titan Gym.

It was only Fullerton’s third victory in the last 16 games between the Big West Conference rivals. “I think we can play with anybody in the conference now, and this was an indication of that,” Hawking said. “We’re competitive with Long Beach now, and we haven’t been for the last couple of years.”

Fullerton (8-4, 1-1) won only six games last season and seven the year before. The loss dropped Long Beach to 5-8, 1-2 in the Big West. The 49ers have lost seven of their last nine games.

Williams scored 25 points and Dade had 22 to lead the Titans, but Dade also played a key role on defense with a strong performance against Big West scoring leader James Cotton.

Cotton was held to nine points, 15 below his season average, the first time in 43 games he has not scored in double figures. Brandon Titus led Long Beach with a career-high 27 points.

Dade made a crucial three-point basket with 2 minutes 20 seconds left that gave Fullerton a 75-70 lead, but the Titans still had to scramble to hang on in the final 35 seconds.

The 49ers closed the gap to three points with nine seconds left when Titus made one free throw, and D’Cean Bryant tipped in his miss of the second. A turnover on the inbounds pass gave Marcus Johnson a chance to take a last-second desperation shot from outside, but it missed.

“They sure made it interesting,” Hawking said. “What happened was that we inbounded the ball to the wrong spot there at the end. But it’s a tense game and sometimes in that situation you lock up, but fortunately it all worked out for us.”

Hawking had no doubt one of the keys in the game was containing Cotton. “Dade had the assignment,” Hawking said, “and he did a great job, but he had a lot of help from other people, but Dade had an outstanding game.”

Dade emerged from a recent shooting slump with six field goals in 13 attempts, five for nine from three-point range and five for seven on free throws. Dade had been in double scoring figures only once in the past five games.

“We won this game with our defense,” Williams said. “Chris did a great job on Cotton, and I think that was the game for us.”

Cotton scored only two points in the second half and fouled out with 20 seconds left. “Dade played great,” Cotton said. “He got on me and really rode me, just like I know his coach wanted him to do.”

The Titans got off to a good start, building a 14-point lead behind two three-point baskets from Chris St. Clair and strong play inside by Williams. Fullerton led by 12 with slightly more than seven minutes left in the first half at 32-20.

The 49ers, however, went on a 15-1 run to take a 35-33 lead. St. Clair connected on his third three-point basket in three attempts to regain the lead at halftime, 36-35, ending a stretch of 5:15 without a point for the Titans.