FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton men's basketball dropped Saturday night's home game to UC Santa Barbara by a final score of 83-75 at Titan Gym. With the loss the Titans drop to 6-16 and 1-9 in Big West play.Â
The Titans got off to a slow start as UC Santa Barbara jumped out to an early 8-0 lead before Kobe Young got the Titans on the board and stopped the early run.Â
After falling behind 24-17, the Titans used great ball movement on the offensive end to get Donovan Oday a wide open three to cut the deficit to 24-20 with 5:06 remaining in the half. Zachary Visentin drew a fall underneath the basketball on Oday's shot to earn two free-throws and narrow the gap to 24-22.Â
UC Santa Barbara was able to build a five-point lead, 34-29, heading into the locker room at halftime. Visentin led the Titans with seven points in the first half on 2-of-3 shooting and 3-of-4 at the free-throw line.Â
Antwan Robinson hit a three on the first possession of the second half to cut the deficit to 34-32. UCSB responded with a 13-4 run to take a 47-36 lead.Â
The Titans kept battling back and a spark by Keith Richard was just what the team needed. Richard hit a corner three to bring the Titans within four points, 51-47, which he followed up with a steal on the defensive end and a fastbreak layup to make it a two-point ball game.Â
Fullerton's defense forced a Gauchos turnover once again on the next possession which led to a Zion Richardson mid-range jumper to tie the game at 51-51 with 12:31 left in the game.Â
After a couple straight buckets by UC Santa Barbara the Titans would once again tie the game at 56-56 but were never able to get over the hump and take the lead.Â
Fullerton's defense was unable to stop UC Santa Barbara's Cole Anderson all night as he scored a game-high 29 points, hitting 6-of-10 from three-points range.Â
Richardson recorded his second double-double of the season with a team-high 16 points on 4-of-10 shooting and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line while grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.
LoLo Rudolph made several key buckets to keep the Titans in the game while being a primary on-ball defender on the defensive end. Rudolph scored a career-high 12 points on 5-of-6 from the field and 2-of-4 from the line.Â
Visentin added 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Oday also added 11 points, extending his double-digit scoring two six consecutive games.
The Titans get next Thursday off as they head to the islands to face Hawaii Saturday at 9:00 p.m. PT.
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