Texas Southern (3-6) at Cal State Fullerton (3-7)
Sunday, December 15, 2013 | 2:00 PM
Titan Gym • Fullerton, Calif.
Game Coverage: Live Stats | Video | Audio | CSF Release 
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SERIES RECORDS
Cal State Fullerton leads 1-0
in Fullerton: First Meeting
CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Television: None
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Live Stats: Live in-game stats are available at www.fullertontitans.com
TICKETS: Single-game tickets for all home games can be purchased online at www.FullertonTitans.com as well as in person or by calling the Cal State Fullerton Athletics Ticket Office at (657) 278-2783 from the hours of 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. On gamedays, tickets can be purchased one hour prior to tip-off at the Titan Gym ticket box office.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow @FullertonHoops for updates during the 2013-14 season.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Texas Southern (3-6) enters Sunday's game having lost six of its last seven. The Tigers have played one same opponent as Cal State Fullerton, falling 84-69 at Miami on Nov. 14.
Texas Southern averages 76.0 points per game, while allowing opponents to score 81.0 ppg. The Tigers are also winless away from home, holding a record of 0-5 on the road.
HEAD-TO-HEAD VS. TEXAS SOUTHERN: Texas Southern and Cal State Fullerton have met once before with the Titans recording a 93-86 win on Dec. 16, 2012 in Houston, Texas. Last year's recap: Cal State Fullerton senior guard D.J. Seeley finished with a game-high 27 points to pace a quintet in double figures and the visiting Titans shot just under 61 percent from the field for the game, racing to a 93-86 victory over host Texas Southern at the H&PE Arena in Houston.
Seeley hit 11-of-14 from the field and dished out seven assists against only one turnover. Kwame Vaughn (16 points), Sammy Yeager (13), Jared Brandon (13), and Deuce Johnson (10) also reach double digits on the day as all seven players in the game for the Titans finished with at least five points.
Fred Sturdivant finished with 22 points (on 10-of-13 from the floor) and eight rebounds for Texas Southern, which had a trio reach 20 points on the day. Omar Strong had six of his seven makes on the day come from beyond the arc as he finished with 20 while Lawrence Johnson-Danner added 20 points on 8-of-10 from the field. Ray Penn had 12 assists to go with six points for the Tigers.
HEAD-TO-HEAD VS. THE SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE: Cal State Fullerton holds an all-time record of 5-1 against teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The Titans are an undefeated 2-0 against teams from the SWAC at Titan Gym, recording a 109-100 victory over Mississippi Valley State in Fullerton on Dec. 15, 1990, while also defeating Jackson State, 76-68, on Dec. 23, 1979 at Titan Gym.
ROSTER STATUS: Cal State Fullerton currently has 16 student-athletes listed on its roster, with 12 players having seen game action thus far in 2013-14. Corey Walker and Moses Morgan must redshirt the season due to NCAA transfer rules. Freshman guard Hidde Vos and junior guard James Douglas are expected to redshirt the season.
EARLY SEASON NOTES: Head coach Dedrique Taylor earned his first win as a head coach after the Titans defeated Montana State, 84-55, in Bozeman, Mont., on Nov. 9…Taylor is the fifth Titan head coach to win his first game at Cal State Fullerton…Cal State Fullerton won its season opener against a Division I opponent for the first time since a 75-67 win at BYU on Nov. 22, 1996 (the 2007-08 season opener was played against CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners as the program was in transition to Div. I status)…Cal State Fullerton's 29-point victory at Montana State was its largest margin of victory on the road since an 81-50 win at Utah on Dec. 7, 2011... Fullerton has eclipsed 80 points on two occasions this season.
CURRENT NOTES: Michael Williams has scored in double figures for a team-leading 10 consecutive games. He has led the Titans in scoring in five of Fullerton's last six games...last Saturday, Steve McClellan's 12-point, 10-rebound performance marked the first Titan double-double of the season. In addition, McClellan's 12 rebounds are also a Titan season high...on Dec. 4, Fullerton erased a halftime deficit for the first time this season en route to a 78-64 win after trailing Pepperdine 37-32 at the break...the Titans have shot over 50.0 percent from the floor in each of their three wins this season... Cal State Fullerton is now 0-6 when scoring less than 70 points…the Titans are also 0-5 when allowing the opponent to score 70 points or more...the Titans have not held a lead in a game four times this season.
IN THE BIG WEST: Cal State Fullerton is holding opposing teams to 69.3 points per game, an average that ranks third in the Big West...the Titans are also holding opponents to a .339 three-point field goal percentage, a clip that also ranks third in the league...Michael Williams' average of 14.6 ppg ranks eighth in the Big West...Williams' .769 free-throw percentage ranks seventh in the league...Williams' 1.80 three-pointers per game tie for ninth in the conference...Marquis Horne's .414 three-point field goal percentage ranks ninth in the Big West...Steve McClellan's 2.40 offensive rebounds per game tie for eighth in the Big West.
COMMONALITIES: What is statistically common in Cal State Fullerton's three wins this season? In three victories, the Titans scored more than 78 points, shot more than 50.0 percent from the floor and shot a higher percentage than their opponents.
MORE COMPARISONS: The Titans have outscored opponents 298-254 in the paint this year, but trail opponents in second chance points (105-108), bench points (197-200) and points off turnovers (131-155)....the Titans have shot 52.8 percent from the floor in their three wins, and just 38.8 percent from the floor in their seven losses, including 41.3 percent from three-point range (wins) compared to 27.9 percent in losses...in losses, the Titans have made just 122 trips to the free-throw line, compared to 168 opportunities for opponents.
ROOKIES: On Nov. 29 at the DIRECTV Wooden Legacy, Fullerton suffered a 48-46 heartbreaking loss to Miami, which saw the Titans nearly erase a 17-point deficit. In that game, head coach Dedrique Taylor inserted freshmen Sheldon Blackwell and Joe Boyd into the starting lineup. Blackwell, a 6-foot-5 guard from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is leading the Titans with 28 assists while averaging 7.0 points per game. Boyd, a 6-foot-9 forward from Scottsdale, Ariz., is averaging 4.0 ppg while adding 4.9 rebounds per game.
AIR TIME: Currently, Cal State Fullerton has eight men's basketball games scheduled to be broadcast, starting with the game at Seattle, which was aired on ROOT Sports Northwest on Nov. 13. In addition, Fullerton's game at USC on Nov. 19 was broadcast on the Pac-12 Network. Each of Fullerton's three games at the DIRECTV Wooden Legacy Tournament were aired on the ESPN family of networks. Fullerton's contest against UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 25 will be aired on Fox Sports Prime Ticket from Titan Gym. In addition, two Titan games are scheduled to be aired on ESPN3 starting on Thursday, Jan. 23 when the Titans host Cal Poly, as well as Fullerton's game against Hawai'i on Saturday, Feb. 15, from Titan Gym.
A NEW ERA BEGINS: Former Arizona State associate head men's basketball coach and long-time college assistant Dedrique Taylor was appointed the 11th men's basketball head coach in Cal State Fullerton history, Athletic Director Jim Donovan announced on April 3, 2013.
A NEW LOOK: Of the 16 players on Cal State Fullerton's roster, 10 had not suited up in a Cal State Fullerton uniform before the 2013-14 season.
REPLACING OFFENSE: Cal State Fullerton lost 60 percent of its scoring from last season with the departure of seniors Sammy Yeager (15.8 ppg), Kwame Vaughn (18.4 ppg) and D.J. Seeley (17.9 ppg).
TITANS IN THE NBA: Former Cal State Fullerton men's basketball player Josh Akognon became the 12th former Titan to appear in the NBA on April 10, 2013 playing four minutes and scoring two points to go with an assist for the Dallas Mavericks in their 102-91 loss to the Phoenix Suns at the American Airlines Center.
Akognon, who played two seasons for Fullerton from 2007-09, became the first Titan to appear in an NBA game since Bobby Brown (2003-07) competed for the New Orleans Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers in the 2009-10 season.
2013 DIRECTV Wooden Legacy Attracts Record Crowds: With the attendance for the final four games of the 2013 DIRECTV Wooden Legacy being 6,007 for the competition at Honda Center on Dec. 1, the three-day event over Thanksgiving weekend attracted a record 14,982 fans for the in-season college basketball tournament near Disneyland.
The Dec. 1 total of 6,007 was a single-day record The 2013 DIRECTV Wooden Legacy featured a Marquette vs. San Diego State championship game at Honda Center. Other schools in the event were Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, College of Charleston, Creighton, George Washington and Miami.
With the first four sessions of the 2013 DIRECTV Wooden Legacy being played November 28 and 29 at Titan Gym on the campus of Cal State Fullerton, the final four games were combined into one session at Honda Center. The two days of action at Titan Gym drew 3,831 on Thanksgiving Day and 5,144 on Nov. 29.
The previous tournament attendance record for the three days of competition at the Anaheim Convention was 14,212 set in November 2009.