Fullerton Finally Snaps Out of It to Beat Pacific, 84-68

Cal State Fullerton’s basketball team was presumably awake when it took the floor Monday night, but the Titans seemed to sleep-walk their way through the first half. Luckily, they were being chased by the snails of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., the University of Pacific Tigers.

Despite its nickname, Fullerton hardly qualifies as a sleeping giant, but the Titans came back in the second half to rout the Tigers, 86-64, before 2,245 in Titan Gym.

Fullerton (13-9 overall) has now won six of seven and is 9-4 in conference play. Pacific dropped to 7-15, 3-10.

“We came out flat, unemotional, unenthusiastic and out of sync with the game,” Fullerton Coach George McQuarn said. “I don’t have any answers. In the second half, we were able to make some things happen out of our defense.

“We seem to have this problem with certain people--Pacific, Santa Barbara and Long Beach State--and I don’t really know why. We always play hard against our other opponents.”

Part of the answer is obvious. Those three teams have served as the league’s doormats in recent years. Fullerton, despite its lackluster play, led at halftime, 33-27. But the Titans outscored Pacific, 9-2, to open the second half and led by as many as 23.

“We always come out a little flat,” Titan forward Tony Neal said, “that’s sort of our history. We take some teams too lightly and I know that’s going to hurt us in the long run.”

“There’s not much I can say,” said UOP Coach Tom O’Neill, who had quite a bit to say to the officials in the first half and then spent the second half squatting by himself beyond the end of the Tiger bench, as if he were trying to disassociate himself from his team.

“We don’t have the horses . . . team’s just overpower us at certain points in the game. And we’re making a lot of critical mistakes.”

Fullerton was coming off its worse loss of the season Saturday (85-69 at Santa Barbara) and that defeat had come on the heels of the Titans’ biggest victory of the year, a 52-51 win over Fresno State.

Neal led Fullerton with 17 points and 9 rebounds.