CS Fullerton edges UCI for berth in final
The Cal State Fullerton men's basketball team played with a chip on its shoulder all season, and Friday night the Titans cashed it in by knocking off top-seeded UC Irvine in a Big West Tournament semifinal game.
The fourth-seeded Titans advanced to the championship game for the second consecutive season with the 83-80 win against UCI at Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada, their eighth consecutive victory overall.
Cal State Fullerton (20-12) will play the winner of second-seeded UC Santa Barbara and third-seeded UC Riverside today at 6:30 p.m.
“What you saw out there was a group of guys who were picked seventh by these other coaches that are so smart in this league,” Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said of the preseason Big West coaches' poll. “What you saw was a group of guys out there that understood the assignment of being picked seventh. Their effort was unbelievable.”
Tory San Antonio stepped up early for the Titans, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the first half to blow by his season scoring average of 7.3.
Vincent Lee gave Fullerton a boost early in the second half by scoring nine of his season-high 15 points in the first four minutes, and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. came up big late, scoring half of his 22 points in the final 10:16 to hold off the Anteaters.
Max Jones contributed 14 points, as all five Fullerton starters finished in double figures.
“They've been here before,” Taylor said of Irvine. “But so have we.”
UCI junior guard Dawson Baker surpassed 1,000 points with the Anteaters when he made two free throws with 2:39 left to cut the deficit to 76-74.
Baker had a chance to tie the score with 2:09 remaining, but missed both free throws and the Titans made two on the other end to extend the lead to four with 1:44 left.
DJ Davis twice pulled UCI back within a point with a 3-pointer with 1:33 remaining, and three free throws with 16 seconds left, but Jalen Harris made two free throws for Fullerton with 11 seconds on the clock and UCI was unable to tie it at the end.
“Disappointed that we weren't able to get a win tonight and I feel that disappointment deeply for my team,” said Irvine coach Russell Turner, who won his sixth regular-season title in 13 years at the school but has only won the conference tournament twice. “We came up just short and that hurts, but that's what happens.”
Baker scored 22 points, Davis had 20 and Pierre Crockrell II finished with a season-high 12 points for Irvine, which expects to receive a bid into the NIT.
Both teams shot the ball well from deep in the first half, which ended with Davis hitting a long 3-pointer to tie the score at 39-39.
Fullerton shot 6 for 11 from long distance in the opening half and the Anteaters were 6 for 10.
San Antonio, the Big West Defensive Player of the Year, sank a deep 3-pointer to give Fullerton a 20-12 lead with 12:36 left in the first half, matching its biggest lead in the opening 20 minutes.
“It looked like they were fully locked in, especially offensively,” Turner said of Fullerton. “It started early, they made a bunch of tough contested shots. They played with confidence, even when we got a lead.”
San Antonio was sent to the bench after he was inadvertently elbowed in the nose by Irvine backup point guard Justin Hohn.
After the medical staff stopped the bleeding, San Antonio made two free throws to stretch the lead back to 33-29 with 6:12 left in the half.
“My mentality going into the game is, `I'm not going home today,'” San Antonio said. “I shot the ball and it kept going in, so I just kept going.”
Wrightsell went to the bench after picking up his second foul with 11:02 left in the first half. He returned and converted a three-point play to move Fullerton in front 39-36 with 57 seconds left, but Davis would sink his third 3-pointer of the half without a miss to tie the score back up at intermission.
JC Butler, who led the Anteaters in scoring for the first time this season with 13 points in their 75-51 win against eighth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield in the quarterfinals, scored eight points in the opening half, but went scoreless in the second half.