Feb. 23, 2006
Santa Barbara, Calif. - Jamaal Brown and Bobby Brown combined for 43 points Thursday night, most of them down the stretch, as Cal State Fullerton won a Big West Conference game at UC Santa Barbara, 80-76.
The Gauchos got 21 points and 11 rebounds from Chris Devine but saw their 5-game winning streak end and their record fall to 12-12 and 4-7 in the Big West. Frank Robinson added 17 points and 5 steals for the Titans, who have won three out of four and are now 13-11 and 5-8.
Jamaal's layup with 9:52 to play put Fullerton ahead to stay at 60-59. The lead got as big as 7 points on two occasions and the Titans were still ahead by 6 at 76-70 with a minute to go. Cecil Brown converted three free throws in a row and the Gauchos got the ball back but Devine missed a 3-point try and Jamaal rebounded with 8.3 seconds left. He converted a 1-and-1 for a 5-point lead but Joe See hit a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left. Bobby converted another 1-and-1 to ice the win, Fullerton's fifth in a row over UCSB.
Bobby scored 25 points for the second game in a row and added 7 assists. Jamaal had his 14th career double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. He is tied for fifth on the Titans' career double-double list.
Devine had a sensational first half with 15 points and 10 rebounds, five of them offensive. But in the second half he had only one rebound and was 2-for-6 from the floor while scoring 6 points.
It was a game of streaks in the first half. UCSB used a 12-0 run to turn a 7-4 deficit into a 16-7 lead. Fullerton used a 7-0 run to pull within 21-19 and the Gauchos scored the final 9 points of the half for a 43-35 lead at the intermission. UCSB was 7-for-7 at the foul line while the Titans did not have an attempt.
Fullerton outscored the Gauchos 21-12 in the first 8 minutes of the second half to finally take the lead back at 56-55 with 11:48 to play. UCSB's last lead was 59-58 on two free throws by Josh Davis with 10:11 to play.
"We had no inside game in the first half and we were taking bad shots and not blocking out on the boards," said CSF Coach Bob Burton. "Devine was the focus of our conversation at halftime. Justin Burns and Frank must have done a better job of blocking him out in the second half.
"Otherwise, we didn't change anything. This was a game we would have lost in November or December. I thought both teams played great."
In the game, Bobby Brown passed both Tony Neal (1,327) and Henry Turner (1,329) on the Titans' career scoring list to move into sixth place with 1,337 points. No. 5 is Greg Bunch with 1,489 points.
Fullerton plays Saturday at 4 p.m. at Cal Poly SLO. UCSB hosts UC Riverside.