Men's Basketball

Blue/Orange Scrimmage a Success for Men’s Basketball

Photo by Matt Brown
Photo by Matt Brown
Posted: Oct 29, 2017

FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton men's basketball unofficially tipped off the 2017-18 season on Sunday afternoon with the Blue/Orange Scrimmage at Titan Gym. The intrasquad scrimmage consisted of four 10-minute quarters. With some of the student-athletes swapping teams after each quarter, the score was reset after each frame.

"I thought we got some good conditioning out of today," head coach Dedrique Taylor said. "I thought we got up and down the floor and I thought we moved the ball fairly well. I think there are a lot of things that we have to continue to get better at. But for the most part, I think these guys understand what is going to make us successful and throughout the scrimmage I thought we saw bits and pieces of it."

Orange won the first quarter by a score of 17-9. Junior guards Khalil Ahmad and Kyle Allman, Jr. led the way for the orange squad in terms of scoring. The orange squad tightened up the defense to end the quarter and built a lead. The highlight of the frame came from the blue squad, though, when sophomore forward Davon Clare connected with freshman guard Landon Kirkwood on an alley-oop.

In the second frame, the Blue squad shot the ball well from distance and won by a score of 27-24. Kirkwood connected on two corner three-pointers and freshman forward Johnny Wang hit one from the wing as well to lead the way.

In the third quarter, Wang continued to shoot the ball well, hitting another three from the wing with redshirt sophomore Jamal Smith on the assist. On the ensuing offensive possession, Smith finished off a strong drive with a left-handed layup.

Allman was very impactful for the Orange squad and ultimately led them to a 17-13 victory. He recorded multiple deflections on the defensive end, including two steals that led to and-one layups. He also connected a three-point field goal and hauled in an offensive rebound that led to a second-chance bucket for sophomore guard Austen Awosika.

Freshman forward Josh Pitts connected on two straight post moves for the Blue squad against senior forward Arkim Robertson. But Robertson responded with a bucket of his own and a blocked shot on another Pitts attempt in the post.

In the fourth and final frame, Smith and Ahmad were effective on the offensive end for the Blue squad to lead them to a narrow victory over the Orange squad. Kirkwood and redshirt freshman Jose Garcia-Gonzalez forced two turnovers and converted them into dunks to highlight the 10-minute period.

Taylor and the squad host La Verne in an exhibition matchup on Saturday, Nov. 4 before opening up the regular season at No. 11 USC on Nov. 10. 

Single Session tickets for the 2017 Wooden Legacy are now on sale as Cal State Fullerton hosts the eight-school, bracketed in-season tournament that will be played Thanksgiving weekend at Titan Gym.

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