After a long 4-game road trip, the Cal State Fullerton Men’s Basketball team finally returned home for a Valentine’s Day 94-74 victory over the UC Davis Aggies.

It’s been a long month for Head Coach Bob Burton and his Titans, and Thursday’s battle with the Aggies marked the first home game in three weeks for the Titans. They picked up right where they left off though, turning a comeback victory into a 20-point blowout.

The game started out rocky for the Titans as they failed to convert on seven of their first eight possessions, allowing Davis to jump out to a quick 8-0 lead. The momentum began to shift when junior guard Josh Akognon lead a fierce defensive stance, swiping two steals in a row on back-to-back plays for deuces. The steals ignited the offense as the Titans made a strong comeback from what was a at one point a 14-point deficit.

“We started getting a lot of steals and converted them on the other end,” Akognon said. “That’s the biggest thing, we can get steals all day but if you don’t convert them it doesn’t mean anything.”

The offense really picked up at the end of the first half behind the leadership of senior Frank Robinson. Robinson hit a long three late in the half and followed it up with a steal and a monster slam on the very next play. Burton was very pleased with Robinson’s effort on both sides of the floor.

“He [Robinson] not only gave us 24 points, but he guarded their best guy and held him down to 8. He got 29 against us last game,” Burton said referring to Davis’ Vince Oliver. “So I thought he was terrific.”

The Titans continued the rally, following up Robinson’s dunk with two steals. One came from Akognon and the other from Marcus Crenshaw, which resulted in a vicious slam by Kenneth Alexander. The Titans ended up ripping the Aggies for 13 steals total, with Akognon having six steals alone.

“That was the difference in the game,” Burton said. “That’s not exactly how I like to play defense, I wish we were a little more consistent on defense than just steals, but we’re athletic and we do that pretty well.”

The Titans’ momentous defense helped them take the lead, ending the first half up 38-34. In the second half, they never looked back, outscoring the Aggies 56-40 en route to a 94-74 victory. The Titans used their up-tempo pace and smooth shooting to run all over the Aggies of Davis.

“That’s how we play, run and gun, shoot 3’s, get rebounds, and get back on D,” Alexander said.

Once again the Titans got a major lift from the point guard position, with the combined efforts of Marcus Crenshaw and Ray Reed, who combined offensive production with minimal mistakes.

“Between them, they had 10 assists and 1 turnover. And that’s pretty good when you get that out of that position,” Burton said.

The Titans also got a huge effort from Scott Cutley, who scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and was one of four Titans in double figures, along with Robinson, Akognon, and Reed.

“Coach wants to run, so that’s what we do,” Reed said. “Can’t nobody guard us when we run like that. We got a lot of athletes so we try to utilize them.”

The energy in the Titan gym was intense as the faithful Titan crowd cheered on as the Titans clearly had fun with the victory.

“We’re having crazy fun out there,” Alexander said. “We hang out all the time so it catches up on the court when we’re out there.”

Burton enjoys seeing his team have fun with their winning ways this season.

“I think that’s huge, winning does that,” Burton said. “They’re actually probably having a little more fun out there than I would want them to have at times … but if it’s not fun why play it?”

The victory brought the Titans to within one game of the conference-leading Cal State Northridge, in a race that Burton refers to as “wide open.”

“We’re trying to do something this school hasn’t done in a while, which is win the Big West and go to the tournament,” Akognon said.

The Titans have not won a Big West title in over 20 years. Nonetheless, they remain confident in their chances.

“I’m 100% confident we’re going to win it. We just need to keep playing how we’re playing and stop having these shaky starts,” Alexander said.

Despite the looming Big West tournament, Burton continues to take it one game at a time, looking at Saturday’s huge game with Pacific

“I think they’ll be ready for the post-season but to me that’s so far away,” Burton said. “We have so much to play for right now. So much in how well you do in that tournament depends on your seeding, so it’s all right in front of us right now.”

Whether it’s Pacific, Northridge, Davis or anybody, the Titans continue to have fun and play great basketball with all the confidence in the world.

“I’m confident, I think my team’s confident, that’s how we live,” Reed said. “Whoever’s next, we ready.”