Feb. 22, 2007
Fullerton, Calif. - Bobby Brown scored 29 points and handed out 8 assists and Marcus Crenshaw came off the bench for a career-high 23 points Thursday night as Cal State Fullerton captured a 79-73 Big West Conference victory over UC Santa Barbara.
Alex Harris had a career-high 35 points for the Gauchos, who fell to 15-10 and 6-5 in the Big West. Fullerton improved to 19-7 and 9-4 and padded its hold on second place in the standings to two full games over the Gauchos and Cal Poly.
With two free throws with 40 seconds remaining, Brown became the career scoring leader for Cal State Fullerton. The senior from Westchester High School in Los Angeles added two more points for a total of 1,879 to move ahead of All-American Leon Wood, who scored 1,876 in three seasons (1981-82 thru 1983-84). Brown also became only the tenth player in Big West history to total 500 assists with 501 and he embellished his evening with a career-high 9 rebounds to share the team lead with Scott Cutley.
The Gauchos' Chris Devine was the only other player in the game in double figures with 14 points. Ivan Elliott had 9 rebounds for UCSB to match Cutley and Brown for game honors.
Fullerton used a 10-0 run to turn a 53-53 tie into a 63-53 lead with 5:51 remaining. Justin Burns scored the tie-breaking bucket and Crenshaw added two of his six 3-point baskets (in 13 tries) in the spurt. UCSB got as close as 5 points on four occasions but Brown and Crenshaw combined to make 6 of 6 free throws in the final 40 seconds.
Brown hit his first three 3-pointers of the game as the Titans jumped out to a 12-4 lead. Two more treys by Frank Robinson made it 18-5 for the biggest lead of the game.
Harris missed his first seven shots of the game but hit a 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer and cap an 8-0 run to end the half with UCSB down only 34-31. He scored 27 points in the second half, making 9 of 18 shots including 4 of 6 treys but he was only 6 of 12 at the foul line. The Gauchos' biggest lead was 42-38 with 16:09 to play after a 10-0 UCSB run.
Fullerton finished with 13 3-pointers in 27 attempts. In an 84-76 loss in December in Santa Barbara the Titans made only 5 of 20.
Neither team was sharp from the foul line. The Gauchos made 15 of 25 and the Titans made 14 of 22. Robinson and Cutley were in foul trouble much of the game for Fullerton.
Fullerton completes its conference and home schedule Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. vs. Cal Poly SLO while UC Santa Barbara visits UC Riverside.