Fullerton Pulls Away Late to Beat San Jose City in the 3C2A State Championship Tournament

Visalia, Calif. - Fullerton came into its 3C2A State Championship quarterfinal playoff game against San Jose City as one of the state's top defensive units and a top 25 rebounding team. Fullerton (30-1) needed both to advance to the semifinals as the Hornets handed San Jose City a 74-63 defeat.

The Hornets will advance to the semifinals tomorrow against the winner of Santa Rosa, the north's #2 seed, vs. Cerritos, the south's #3 seed.

Fullerton, which ranked third in the state in points allowed, struggled on both ends of the floor early, falling behind San Jose.

"San Jose City is a good team who plays a good conference," Fullerton coach Perry Webster said. "They are big and physical."

San Jose City used a soft pressure defense to slow the Hornets offensive. Early on, San Jose City attacked the basket, securing a number of easy layups and dunks resulting in a lead of nine points with 9:03 remaining in the first half.

The Hornets, winners of 15 straight and champions of the Orange Empire Conference, considered the toughest conference in the state, rallied, outscoring the Jaguars 17-7 to take a one-point lead at 28-27 with 1:54 remaining before halftime.

But San Jose City answered as Ryan Baker drilled one of the Jaguars' four three-pointers. In the end, San Jose City took a one-point lead into the locker room at 32-31. The 31 points was one of Fullerton's lowest 20-minute offensive outputs of the season.

"I thought (San Jose City coach Devin Aye) did a great job of changing their defense and keeping the game slow which benefitted them," said Webster who is making his sixth Final Eight appearance, including four in a row. "(At the same time), I think it was good for us to go through a bad shooting night. Playing the 1 pm game and going through some adversity I think will help us tomorrow."

Fullerton (30-1) held a five rebound advantage at halftime, and finished outrebounding the Jaguars, 34-29.

"I think us winning the rebound game is what caused us to win this game," said Webster, who is trying to lead Fullerton to its third state championship. "I thought we defended okay but as times we missed some assignments. Tomorrow we are going have to be better."

Eight of the 13 Fullerton players are freshman, and three of them started and five of the eight players who played for the Hornets were freshman.

"We're young and we still are having young guys make young mistakes," Webster said.

The second half turned into a battle — physically. With less than five minutes gone in the first half the teams had accumulated seven team fouls between them.

Fullerton picked it up on defense, forcing San Jose City away from the basket. Doing so, San Jose City made just three of its next eight shots as the Hornets opened its largest led at 42-38 with 13:23 left.

Through the first 10 minutes of the second period, Fullerton built a six-point lead at 44-38 with 13:13 left on a Donovan Pitts layup. San Jose City, however, rallied, taking a one-point lead at 10:31 at 46-45 on a Muhammad Singleton. With eight minutes to go, the score was tied 50-50. With 5:30 remaining it was 55-55.

A Jaedyn Patterson steal and layup with 4:26 left gave Fullerton a 59-57 lead which was extended to four points, by a Pitts layup, but San Jose City's Jeremiah Butler hit a three pointer to keep the Jaguars in striking distance at 61-60 with 3:49 left.

After a timeout, Fullerton would score six straight points to take a 67-60 lead with 42 seconds remaining.

Over the course of the final three minutes, San Jose City was 1 of 5 from the floor and committed three turnovers.

"We have shown the ability to win games all year," Webster said. "In the final minutes I thought we should our length and bared down defensively. We have the athletes to be good defensive and in the final minutes I thought we found out rhythm defensively."

Aye was counting on a good shooting night for his Jaguars to upset Fullerton which is trying to return to the state championship game for the second consecutive year. After a solid first half, shooting over 41 percent on 13 of 31 the Jaguars managed 28 shots, making 12 in the second half.

Fullerton had three players score in double figures, led by Yoda Oke with 19 points and 10 rebounds, eight on the defensive end. Brayden Smith added 18 and Pitts chipped in 16. San Jose City was led by Muhammad Singleton with 18 and Jeremiah Butler with 12.

Release by Robert Schmidt, 3C2A Championship SID