Cal State Fullerton men top CSUN to complete a strong week

FULLERTON — After starting this week with another impressive Big West Conference victory, the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team desperately wanted to finish on a high note as well.

The Titans met that goal with an 86-79 victory over visiting Cal State Northridge on Saturday night at Titan Gym.

Fullerton (8-10 overall, 3-3 Big West) trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and didn’t take its first lead until just under 13 minutes remained, but the Titans ran away from the Matadors with a barrage of turnovers and easy transition baskets down the stretch.

The Titans were coming off an impressive 88-71 win at UC San Diego on Thursday night. They had posted a surprising 95-84 win against visiting UC Santa Barbara a week earlier, but couldn’t hold up against visiting UC Irvine last Saturday and lost, 86-64.

“I challenged them at halftime to learn from last week,” Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said. “We played great on Thursday (against UCSB) and then, all of a sudden, we didn’t have the same physical energy (against UCI).”

After leading by as many as 14, the Matadors (10-8, 3-3) took a 40-31 lead to the locker room at halftime behind 21 points from Joshua O’Garro.

Christian Williams started the Fullerton comeback with a steal and a dunk, and his second 3-pointer of the second half cut the CSUN lead to 45-39 with 16:55 left in the game.

“It was really just setting the tone defensively, which leads to us getting out in transition offensively,” Williams said.

Williams sank another 3-pointer from in front of his bench to cut the deficit to one, and the Titans took their first lead of the game at 51-49 on two free throws by Bryce Cofield with 12:53 left.

The Matadors briefly tied it back up, but Fullerton responded with a 10-0 run capped by a fast-break layup by Jaden Henderson for a 61-51 lead with 10:38 to go.

CSUN managed to cut the deficit to seven twice, the second time on a 3-pointer by Larry Hughes II with 5:23 left, but the Matadors couldn’t draw any closer until a half-court shot at the final buzzer.

“Last week against Irvine. … We didn’t have enough in the tank and we didn’t know how to bounce back,” Williams said. “This time, we really emphasized, ‘We can’t let that same thing happen, like it’s time to really respond, respond to the challenge. Who’s going to be the tougher team?’”

Williams scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half and also contributed eight rebounds and four steals. Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro scored 17 points, Landon Seaman added 15 points off the bench, and Cofield finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

“We believe in ourselves, but for us to go out there and show it to ourselves, it gives us so much confidence,” De La Cruz Monegro said. “Why not just keep believing in ourselves, have the utmost confidence every time we step on that floor. We won last Thursday, but we didn’t get the job done on Saturday, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t do it again and again. You can’t be a one-hit wonder.”

O’Garro, a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard who came in averaging 13.1 points and 9.1 rebounds, finished with 31 points and also led the Matadors with 13 rebounds and six assists.

Hughes, who came in averaging 19.1 ppg, was held to 13 points on 4-of-19 shooting.

“We made his shots difficult,” Taylor said of Hughes. “(O’Garro) got loose, but we were able to make them score a different way than they’re used to.”

CSUN also came in as the top rebounding team in the conference (41.7 rpg), but the Titans won that category as well, 39-38.

“Just shows what we’re capable of when we’re intentional with our effort,” Taylor said.