Jamaal Brown’s tip-in at the buzzer Saturday night gave Cal State
Fullerton a 72-70 Big West Conference victory over Cal State Northridge.
Senior forward Ralphy Holmes had a triple double in his final Titan Gym
appearance with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists as the Titans improved
to 18-9 overall and 12-6 in the Big West. Davin White, who tied the game
with a 3-point basket with 26 seconds to play, had 19 points for the Matadors,
who fell to 17-12, 12-6. The two teams tied for third place but the Titans
are the No. 3 seed in the post-season tournament by virtue of their season
sweep of CSUN.
Holmes missed a fallaway jumper in the closing seconds but Brown was on
the far left side and had an uncontested one-hand tip.
Brown led the Titans with 19 points while Yaphett King had 16, 15 of them
in the first half. Ian Boylan with 13 points was the only other Matador
in double figures.
Fullerton appeared to have the game under control when Jermaine Harper
was fouled on a layup try with a 67-56 lead and less than 5 minutes to
play. But Bobby Brown was cited for a technical foul for hanging on the
rim -- the basket support collapsed to a folded position -- and the momentum
changed. Boylan made two free throws on the technical and Harper made
only one so instead of a possible 13-point lead, it was only 68-58. And
Northridge scored the next 7 points before Harper hit two free throws
at 3:08 to make it 70-65.
Both teams missed scoring opportunities until Joseph Frazier hit two free
throws at the 1:02 mark. Bobby Brown was cited for double dribble to set
up White’s game=tying bucket.
Northridge never led in the game. For the second game in a row, Fullerton
jumped out to a 13-2 lead and led usually by double digits until the Matadors
scored the final 6 points of the half to draw within 40-34.
The Matadors tied the game at 46-46 but Fullerton scored the next 6 points
and gradually pulled away to a 67-56 lead with 7:20 remaining. Neither
team scored in the next two minutes prior to the technical foul on Bobby
Brown.
Fullerton made only 9 of 19 free throws but outrebounded the Matadors,
37-32, and committed an equal amount of turnovers -- 17.
Fullerton’s victory total of 18 is its highest since its 1982-83
team went 21-8. Fullerton finished with a 10-2 home record.
Fullerton will play at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the Anaheim Convention Center
against the lowest remaining seed of a field which includes No. 5 UC Irvine,
No. 6 Long Beach State, No. 7 UC Santa Barbara and No. 8 Idaho. Northridge
will play the highest remaining seed at approximately 8:30 p.m.
