Fullerton Does an Outside Job on Loyola in 76-71 Win

SALT LAKE CITY —  Before the season began, there were two things that Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. coaches agreed on: Nevada Las Vegas was the favorite to win the conference title again, and Cal State Fullerton’s strength was outside shooting.

UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian said the Titans had “the best perimeter on the West Coast,” and in their first three games, the Fullerton front line did nothing to discount that evaluation.

It was the same story Friday night in the first round of the Utah tournament, but this time there was a positive ending for the Titans.

Point guard Kevin Henderson and wing players Kerry Boagni and Richard Morton combined for 57 points as Fullerton defeated Loyola Marymount, 76-71, before 10,290 fans at the Special Events Center.

The Titans (2-2) will meet Utah, an 87-61 winner over Houston Baptist Friday night, in the championship game tonight.

“This was a very, very good win for us,” Titan Coach George McQuarn said. “That team (Loyola) has a chance to win 20 games this year. And, yeah, the perimeter game carried us again. We got nothing inside.”

The Titans were not only out-rebounded by Loyola, 44-35, but also outshot from both the field, 48% to 44%, and the free-throw line, 79% to 55%. Fullerton did, however, take 26 more shots, mainly because the Lions had 20 turnovers and the Titans just 9.

Henderson, Boagni and Morton took 54 shots, the same number as the entire Lion team.

“Fatigue was a factor for both teams,” said Paul Westhead, the former Laker coach who is in his first season at Loyola. “But we’ve had a rash of injuries this year, and when exhaustion set in, the errors came, too. I think we’re still X amount of games away . . . two, maybe three games behind.”

Loyola’s Forrest McKenzie, the 6-7 forward who was academically ineligible last season, didn’t look tired despite having played no Division I ball for almost two years. He hasn’t even practiced much since breaking his thumb Oct. 21, and he sat out the Lions’ season-opening win over Azusa-Pacific last Saturday.

But the West Coast Athletic Conference scoring leader in 1983-84 picked up where he left off, hitting 14 of 19 shots, grabbing 10 rebounds and finishing with a game-high 30 points.

Senior Keith Smith, a projected first-round NBA draft pick, was the only other Lion in double figures with 18 points. But Loyola’s dynamic duo couldn’t keep pace with the Titan trio of Boagni, Morton and Henderson.

Boagni rebounded from a 3-for-12 first half to hit 7 of 9 after the intermission, including a couple of clutch, long-range bombs that Westhead described as “big-time jumpers.”

The 6-8 forward hit four baseline jumpers--all about 18- to 20-footers--in a 2 1/2-minute span midway through the second half as the Titans rallied from a 54-48 deficit to tie the game at 58-58.

“If I would have had a first half like that last year, I probably would have gone in the tank,” Boagni said. “But I’ve tried to change my attitude and remember that there’s two halves to every game. We were up by three (39-36) at halftime, and we all knew we had a good chance to win.”