March 8, 2007
ANAHEIM, CA - Cal State Fullerton junior Frank Robinson netted a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds while senior Bobby Brown led all scorers with 30 points as the Titans advanced to the semifinals of the Big West Conference Tournament with a 100-92 victory over Pacific in double overtime on Thursday night at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Titans improved to 20-9 overall and will face No. 2-seeded Cal Poly in the semifinal round on Friday at 9 p.m. on ESPNU. The Tigers ended their regular season 12-19 overall.
Justin Burns had 13 points before fouling out while Marcus Crenshaw added 11 points and a trio of three-pointers off the bench. Scott Cutley scored only nine points, but grabbed 13 rebounds in the winning effort before fouling out in the second overtime.
Anthony Brown led Pacific with 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting to go with six rebounds. Three other Tigers were in double figures.
Andrew Green's only basket of the game put Fullerton ahead to stay at 2:25 of the second overtime at 92-90. Brown hit a jumper and Robinson made a layup for a 6-point lead and Brown made 4-of-4 free throws in the final 26 seconds.
Fullerton, which led by as many as 9 points in the second half but then trailed by 4 with 33 seconds to play in regulation, forced overtime when Brown drove to the basket and scored with 19 seconds to play to tie the game and Steffan Johnson missed a running jumper just before the buzzer.
Neither team led by more than 2 points in the first overtime. Robinson hit a 3-pointer for an 88-86 CSF lead with 24 seconds left but Anthony Brown got an uncontested layup for UoP to tie it at 88-88 with 2.9 seconds left. Bobby Brown missed a 40-foot 3-pointer and the game went into a second overtime period.
"We've been stuck on 19 wins for it seems like two years," said Fullerton Head Coach Bob Burton. "We've been struggling lately, not playing together. I felt we were ready to play tonight. Last night I saw that Pacific was ready to play, too. That is not the same team we saw earlier."
"We got some defensive stops and that energized our offense," said Robinson, 26 points and 12 rebounds in his last Big West Tournament game vs. Long Beach State last year.
"That was the big thing in overtime. Now we play Cal Poly... they beat us twice (actually, only once in Fullerton's season finale)... it just seemed like twice."
"I just forgot about them," said Brown, when asked about the two dunks he missed in the second half. "Those were aggressive mistakes."
The game was reminiscent of last year's quartefinal game vs. Long Beach, which the 49ers won, 94-91.
"I've people tell me that was one of the best games ever in the Big West Tournament and I'm thinking tonight I'm going to be on the losing end of another one.
"We were just real fortunate to win it."
Fullerton's women's team plays at 2:30 vs. UC Santa Barbara. It's the first time since 1986 that both Fullerton teams have advanced to the semifinals in the same season.
Fullerton is now 2-5 in its history in double overtime games. The only other win was 62-59 over Idaho on Feb. 22, 2003. The Titans lost their last double overtime game to UC Santa Barbara, 98-95, on Feb. 26, 2004.
It was the first double overtime game in the history of the Big West Tournament, which dates to 1976.
This is the fourth time in Div. I and fifth overall that Fullerton has won 20 games.