Ralphy Holmes scored 20 points and Jamaal Brown posted a double-double
with 14 rebounds and 13 points Saturday evening to lead Cal State Fullerton
to a 68-59 Big West Conference victory over UC Santa Barbara.
Alex Harris had 16 points and Cameron Goettsche added 12 along with 7
rebounds for the Gauchos, who lost their ninth consecutive road game to
fall to 7-11 overall and 4-6 in the Big West.
Fullerton improved to 10-7, 5-4 and beat the Gauchos at home for the first
time in eight seasons.
Yaphett King and Jermaine Harper each added 14 points for the Titans,
who got only 3 from point guard Bobby Brown, the conference’s leading
scorer with a 17.5 ppg average.
Joe See also was in double figures for UCSB with 12 points and Glenn Turner
had a team-high 8 rebounds to go with 3 blocked shots.
Fullerton used a 15-0 run over a span of seven minutes early in the second
half to take control of the game. A 3-pointer by Harris had pulled the
Gauchos to within 40-38 with 16:21 to play. Holmes had 6, Jamaal Brown
had 5 and King had 4 points in the run that ended when See hit a 3-pointer
at 8:57 to make it 55-41. UCSB never got closer than the final margin
of 9 points.
Each team had a dominant stretch in the first half. Fullerton turned a
4-0 deficit into a 16-8 lead and bumped it to 10 at 23-13 with 8:17 remaining.
But UCSB went on a 13-2 run to take a 26-25 lead at 2:35 on a See free
throw. Fullerton scored the final six points of the half for a 31-26 edge.
Fullerton surprisingly won the game at the foul line, hitting 15 of 24
shots to a 3-for-9 effort by UCSB. Fullerton has shot roughly half as
many free throws as its opponents this season.
The Titans took 29 3-point tries, mostly over a UCSB zone, to fall only
two shy of the school record. They made 9 with Harper hitting 4 of 9.
Bobby Brown was 1-for-7 from 3-point range and 1-for-8 overall and played
only 8 minutes in the second half as reserve John Clemmons ran the offense.
Brown’s only lower career scoring total was a zero last year at
Santa Barbara.
Fullerton plays only one game next week, at UC Riverside on Thursday.
UCSB goes home where it is 6-2 to host Idaho and Utah State.
