Box Score
Ralphy Holmes scored 24 points and Pape Sow added 12 points and 7 rebounds
Wednesday night as Cal State Fullerton held on for a 74-64 Big West Conference
victory at UC Riverside to snap a 3-game losing streak.
TheTitans braved a fierce storm to get to Riverside,
then held on as the Highlanders rained second half treys in front of 718
fans at the Student Recreation Center. The Highlanders (5-13, 4-8) had
a balanced attack led by 13 points by guard Kevin Butler, 12 by forward
Nate Carter and 11 by guard Ted Bell off of the bench. Forward John Galbreath
had eight points and a season-high nine rebounds.
After the Highlanders opened the scoring with a jumper by Galbreath, the
Titans (7-15, 5-7) ran off a 17-2 run, 10 coming from Holmes, to take
a 17-4 lead at 12:44. The Highlanders used an 8-2 run to cut the lead
to 19-12 at 9:12, but the Titans answered with a 9-3 run to build the
lead back to double digits and entered the intermission with a 39-25 lead,
matching their biggest halftime lead (40-26 vs. Morris Brown) of the season.
The Highlanders began to claw back with 15 minutes left in the game as
Kevin Butler drained a trey to make the score 46-36. That prompted a 10-0
run that brought the Highlanders to within three, capped off by a three-pointer
by Mark Peters at 12:12 that made the score 46-43. Moments later the Highlanders
cut the score to two as Bell drained a three to make it 48-46.
But the Titans used a 7-0 run of their own to jump back out to a nine-point
lead at 57-48. Bolton started and finished the run, opening up with a
three and finishing it with a fast break dunk off a steal of an errant
Butler pass, and the Titans never looked back.
The Titans shot 51.1% (23-of-45) frm the field and outrebounded the Highlanders,
26-24. UCR shot 49.0% (22-of-49). The Titans hit 21 of 23 free throws
including 10 of 10 in the final 1:25 for a season-best 91.3%. Turnovers
continued to plague UCR, as it committed 16 to Fullerton's 10.
The Titans played without junior guard Derick Andrew,
who apparently is lost for the season after suffering a preretinal hemorrhage
which blinded him in the right eye when awoke on Tuesday morning. He was
seen by a retinal specialist and the condition typically is resolved in
four or more weeks but only if there is no strenuous physical activity.
Andrew is averaging better than 9 points a game and had a career-high
25 in a Jan. 30 win over Cal State Northridge.
Jamal Forcheney is now the only Titan to play in all
22 games. Andrew became the fifth of five returning Titan lettermen to
be sidelined during this season, joining 3-year letterman Brandon Campbell
(ankle, played in only 2 games), 2-year letterman Babacar Camara (ankle,
played in only 5 games) and 1-year lettermen Pape Sow (suspended 11 games)
and Denver Lopez (ankle, out 4 games).
Fullerton has Saturday off and begins the stretch run of the final six
games -- four of them at home -- vs. Utah State in Titan Gym on Thursday,
Feb. 20.
