March 5, 2006
Fullerton, Calif. - Junior Justin Burns scored a career-high 22 points and senior Jermaine Harper added 21 Sunday afternoon as Cal State Fullerton rolled to a 95-82 non-conference victory over South Dakota State.
Matt Cadwell scored 27 points and Ben Beran had 19 points and 8 rebounds for the Jackrabbits, who concluded their season with a 9-20 mark.
Fullerton also got a double-double from Jamaal Brown with 15 points and 10 rebounds and 14 points and 9 assists from Bobby Brown to clinch a winning season at 15-12. On the heels of last year's 21-11 mark, this is the first back-to-back winning seasons for the Titans since 1983-84 and 1984-85. Fullerton begins play Wednesday in the Big West Conference Post-Season Tournament in Anaheim.
Harper and Jamaal Brown were playing their final games in Titan Gym along with reserve guards Vershan Cottrell and John Clemmons.
Both teams made at least half their field goals and both made more than 50 percent of their 3-point tries. The rebounds (CSF 33, SDSU 31) and turnovers (CSF 19, SDSU 20) were almost identical. But Fullerton made 18 of 23 free throws to 9 of 11 from SDSU even though the foul differential was only two.
Fullerton took the lead for good at 13-12 six minutes into the game and a series of dunks by Frank Robinson and Burns stretched the lead to as many as 13 points and it was 46-34 at the half.
The Jackrabbits pulled within 7 points on two occasions in the second hal and were still down only 64-56 with 13 minutes to play. Fullerton made five free throws in a row for a 13-point lead and the advantage was double digits the rest of the way.
No. 6-seeded Fullerton, which has won five of its last seven games, plays at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday vs. No. 7-seeded Cal State Northridge in the opening round of the BWC Tourney at the Anaheim Convention Center.