CS Fullerton Remembers How to Win, 59-56

What do you do if you’re the team captain and your team had its last victory celebration 26 days ago? If you’re Herman Webster, you invite all the guys over and throw a tape in the VCR.

Webster, Cal State Fullerton’s senior center, held just such a get-together Thursday afternoon at his apartment. And he didn’t even have to go to the record store to rent a video.

Webster played a tape of Fullerton’s Jan. 3 victory over Fresno State. A few hours later, he and his teammates went out and ended a 26-day drought by beating the University of the Pacific, 59-56, in front of 1,872 spectators in Titan Gym.

Richard Morton had 15 points, and Webster contributed 11 points and 5 rebounds to lead the Titans to their first win in more than three weeks. Fullerton is 2-6 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., 9-8 overall. Pacific falls to 4-5 and 8-10.

The Titans had a few anxious moments before they could lay a six-game losing streak to rest. Morton hit both ends of a one-and-one with 20 seconds to play to give Fullerton a 59-56 lead that left Pacific a three-point shot away from tying the game. The Tigers had made 4 of 8 three-pointers at that point. Their ninth try, though, a 22-foot desperation job by Willie Tatum with one second remaining, was well off the mark.

The victory left Fullerton Coach George McQuarn ecstatic. McQuarn closed a post-game meeting with reporters by saying, “I love you guys.”

McQuarn has had his share of stormy moments with the press during his career at Fullerton, but on Thursday night he was cordial. “There ain’t nothin’ like a win,” he shouted, using bad grammar only for emphasis.

Then he went on to say he had told his team that its goal was to win 10 of its remaining 11 games, starting with the one against Pacific. “That’s our goal,” McQuarn said. “I told the kids that. You can ask them.”

When asked, Webster replied: “To be honest, we’re looking for 11 out of 11. I feel we can beat (Nevada Las) Vegas at their place. We beat BYU in front of 18,000 people in their place. We beat Fresno there.”

Such unbridled optimism has been absent around Fullerton since the Titans last played Pacific. On Jan. 5, the Tigers beat Fullerton, 58-55, in Stockton. That began the Titans’ six-game slide into the bottom of the PCAA standings.

Webster said the memory of that loss, and the memories sparked by the viewing of the tape of the Fresno State game, helped shake some life into the Titans.

“We feel the Fresno game was the best defense we’ve played this year,” he said. “We were just trying to get back to the basics.”