Cal State Fullerton was 2-4 in Big West play following a Jan. 26 loss at Long Beach State. The Titans have won five of six since and at 7-5 have moved into fourth place – tied with CSUN – two games behind first-place UC Irvine with four to play.
Along the way, Fullerton defeated Long Beach State in a rematch Feb. 11, and last Saturday it beat visiting UC Davis 74-65. The Aggies, who on Feb. 8 handed Fullerton its only loss during this run, entered in a tie with Irvine for first place.
Things are indeed looking up for the Titans, who host Irvine (16-12, 9-3) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
“I think our guys are just kind of settling into a rhythm, settling into their role and really trying to execute it on both ends of the floor,” Coach Dedrique Taylor said Monday. “I think our defensive purpose has picked up tremendously. I think offensively, we still struggle in some areas and a lot of it has to do with just ball movement.”
Taylor mentioned defense. The Titans allowed 73.6 points through those first six conference games, 65.6 over the past six.
Fullerton is still turning the ball over too much, its recent success notwithstanding. The Titans average a Big West-worst 16.3 turnovers.
“Turnovers are still a problem for us,” Taylor said. “It’s not where I would like it to be, but we’re finding a way to overcome it.”
It would behoove the Titans to take care of the ball Wednesday against Irvine. They had only 14 turnovers in an 87-67 loss Jan. 14 at Irvine.
“Most importantly, we’ve gotta come out and establish our own aggressive play in our own style of play,” Taylor said. “Irvine does a really good job of attacking you and kind of trying to put you on your heels. When they do that, they’re a very good ballclub.”
Long Beach State coach Dan Monson talked last week about the difficulty keeping teams out of the paint. Not having junior forward Gabe Levin (knee surgery) for conference wasn’t helping.
The 49ers then went out Thursday and not only knocked UC Davis out of first with a 78-69 overtime victory, but they outscored the Aggies 46-22 in the paint.
Rather than touch on what his team did to prevent UC Davis from scoring inside, Monson on Monday took delight in what his team did to score its points inside.
“I just think our guards are buying into it,” Monson said of Justin Bibbins and Evan Payne. “I think our guards have realized that the more attention (forwards) Roschon (Prince) and Temidayo (Yussuf) get from the defense, the more opportunities they’re going to get from the perimeter. So our guards have really done a good job of trying to play inside-out.”
The third-place 49ers (13-16, 8-5), who are a half-game behind second-place UC Davis (16-11, 8-4), host eighth-place Cal Poly (8-18, 3-9) on Thursday.
Monson said sophomore guard Noah Blackwell (foot) did some shooting Monday and is expected back soon. He’s missed the past six games after averaging 13 points in the first seven Big West games.
The Big West selected Payne as its men’s Player of the Week for the second time this season. The Long Beach State junior averaged 20 points in victories over UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara (66-48). He shot 52.2 percent from the field, 42.9 percent (6 of 14) from 3-point range. Payne’s basket with 2.6 seconds left in regulation sent the game against UC Davis into overtime, where Payne then scored 11 of his team’s 23 points.
Channon Fluker of CSUN (15-11, 8-4) took the women’s honor for the third consecutive week and the fifth time this season. The sophomore center averaged 30 points and 9.5 rebounds in victories over UC Irvine (85-77) and Hawaii (60-49). Fluker also averaged 3.5 blocks.
Contact the writer: rmorales@scng.com
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