Fullerton Rallies Again but Loses to Pepperdine

With 14 minutes left in Cal State Fullerton’s game against Pepperdine Tuesday, John Sneed looked at the scoreboard.

Pepperdine led by 15 points, and the Titans’ main offensive threat, Cedric Ceballos, had 4 fouls.

Sneed thought about one thing. “Shades of Utah,” he said, recalling how Fullerton came back from 13 points down to win its opener last week.

Fullerton stormed back again Tuesday, coming as close as 2 points, but Pepperdine held off the rally for a 71-67 victory in front of 1,806 in Titan Gym.

The victory was the third in a row for Pepperdine, which opened the season 0-2.

Fullerton, which has a 10-player roster and a first-year coach, is 1-1.

“We’re young and we’ll make mistakes, but we won’t quit,” Sneed said. “These are my 10 warriors. They will battle with me.”

Pepperdine, a team that hasn’t played well with a lead, met a Fullerton team that plays its best without one.

“We haven’t played well with a lead of 10 points or more,” Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said. “I guess we’re not into prosperity.”

The Waves were thriving 6 minutes into the second half, when junior forward Tom Lewis, the former Mater Dei High School star, hit a 3-pointer from the baseline to give Pepperdine a 49-34 lead.

But Fullerton played out another gutty comeback. This one fell short.

“It was a little bit of shades of Utah for a minute,” Sneed said. “I reminded (the Titans) of that.”

Pepperdine held a 34-30 lead at halftime and stretched it to 6 points in the early part of the second half.

When Ceballos went to the bench after being called for his fourth foul with more than 17 minutes left, the Fullerton offense stalled against Pepperdine’s zone.

Pepperdine scored 9 consecutive points, capped by Lewis’ 3-point baseline jumper that gave Pepperdine a 15-point lead, 49-34, the largest of the game.

But with Fullerton’s offense so incompetent with Ceballos out, Sneed put aside caution and sent Ceballos back in with more than 15 minutes remaining.

“I put Ceballos back in quickly because we could only get so far down,” Sneed said. “He’s not superman.”

Ceballos came back, playing the final 15 minutes with four fouls and leading the comeback.

Ceballos, a 6-7 junior forward, hit a 3-pointer that cut the lead to 10. Less than a minute later, the lead was only 8 after Ceballos’ length-of-the-court drive ended with a one-handed shot from the lane, making it, 51-43.

“I tried not to think about the fouls, just to play,” said Ceballos, who finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds.

His defensive assignment wasn’t one he could slack off. He was guarding Lewis, who finished with 20 points for Pepperdine. Craig Davis added 17 for the Waves.

“We just tried to help Ceballos out on defense,” Sneed said.

A short jumper by Derek Jones cut the lead to 6. Several minutes later, Jones, who finished with 16 points, hit 2 free throws to cut it to 58-54 with 6:47 left.

Then Ceballos, leading the fast break, faked left and right and kept the ball for a short jumper that cut Pepperdine’s lead to 2, 58-56.

But Pepperdine scored 4 unanswered points, going up by 6 on center Casey Crawford’s dunk.

Fullerton’s Mark Hill cut it to 62-59 with a 3-point shot, but another Crawford dunk off an offensive rebound and a 3-pointer by Shann Ferch gave Pepperdine a 67-59 lead with 2:11 left.

Pepperdine was up by 6 in the final seconds before Hill hit a 13-foot jumper with 10 seconds left that cut it to 71-67.

“I didn’t think we played very well in the first half,” Asbury said. “When we got that big lead at the start of the second half, I was concerned because we haven’t played that well with a big lead. We made it harder than it had to be.”