Feb. 17, 2007
Fairborn, Ohio - DeShaun Wood scored 19 points and Vaughn Duggins came off the bench for 15 points and 8 rebounds Saturday night to lead host Wright State to a 77-62 win over Cal State Fullerton in the O'Reilly ESPNU Bracket Buster.
The win was the ninth in a row for the Horizon League leaders, who are now 21-8. Fullerton got 20 points and 8 rebounds from Scott Cutley but lost consecutive games for the first time this season and fell to 18-7.
Bobby Brown was the only other Titan in double figures with 12 points, 10 in the first half, which ended with Fullerton ahead, 34-33.
The Titans' last lead was at 40-38 with 16:12 to play after a Ray Reed bucket. But Duggins hit a trey to spark a 12-0 run stopped when Marcus Crenshaw hit a 3-pointer with 12:12 to play. Wright State pulled out to an 11-point lead before Fullerton closed to within 6 points at 55-49 with about 8 minutes to go.
Wright State took a timeout, which ignited a 7-0 Raiders' run to a 62-49 lead and the Titans never got closer than 9 points again and trailed by as many as 20 points at 73-53.
"I thought we really played hard and gave a good effort," said Titans' Head Coach Bob Burton. "We played about as well as we can play on the road the first 10 minutes and were right there. But we let them get away from us and they are a hard team to chase. They are very good and very well-coached.
"This was a tough environment to play in. All the conditions -- the crowd (9,614), senior night, their winning streak, the snow and the cold weather, our 13-hour trip to get here. And they are very good. When they heated up defensively, we got fatigued and they wore us out."
Cutley scored the Titans' first 8 points as they led most of the first half with a lead as big as 12 points at 25-13 after a 9-0 Fullerton run. But Wright State, which missed its first six 3-point field goals, made its next five and eventually took the lead at 33-31. Wood missed a one-one-one free throw and the Titans g thote last scoring opportunity and Bobby Brown cashed it in with a 25-foot 3-pointer to beat the buzzer.
Wright State hit 7 of its last 11 shots in the half while Fullerton was making 3 of its last 13.
Fullerton returns to Big West Conference play on Thursday night when it hosts UC Santa Barbara in a battle to hold onto second place and a coveted No. 2 tournament seed which comes with a pair of byes. The game will be televised live on KVMD.