The first week of Big West play brought us a thriller in Long Beach, shootouts in Fullerton and Hawaii and a milestone victory for one head coach. Here’s a look at what went down on the first week of Big West Conference action.
Yeager’s big night
A depleted Cal State Fullerton (7-5, 1-0) roster has left forward Sammy Yeager with a big task on his hands as the only big man left. But Yeager had his best offensive performance of the season in Fullerton’s 86-79 win over UC Santa Barbara (4-8, 0-1), Saturday at the Titan Gym.
Yeager scored a career-high 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting and lit it up from behind the arc going 8-for-11. Yeager also had four rebounds, two assists and a steal, good enough to earn the senior his first Big West Player of the Week award.
Yeager was admittedly confident with his shooting touch but attributed much of his performance to guards Kwame Vaughn and D.J. Seeley’s distribution.
“You definitely get more confident as the game goes on, especially when guys like D.J. and Kwame are just finding you for wide-open shots,” Yeager said. “So I really didn't have to fight too hard for those shots. They were just set shots and I just had to make them."
Vaughn and Seeley were both nearly unstoppable, helping the Titans hold off a Gaucho offense that shot nearly 50 percent in the second half and never let the Titans have much breathing room. Vaughn scored 27 points with six rebounds and four assists and Seeley had 14 points and five assists.
Santa Barbara also enjoyed a strong offensive night. Center Alan Williams scored 22 points and dominated on the glass with 16 boards and forward Taran Brown scored 20 and hit a career-high six 3-pointers.
Santa Barbara hit a season-high 15 3's, showing a marked improvement from their last game against Wyoming when the Gauchos made only 1 triple. Three-point shooting in particular helped them get back in the game in the second half after falling behind by as many as 14 points, but the defense left something to be desired, and that was not lost on head coach Bob Williams.
“We can talk all we want about being a young team and growing up, but tonight, on the defensive end, I didn't see any growth,” Williams said. “I was not pleased with what we did defensively tonight.”
New faces at The Beach
Until this season, Dan Monson had never had a midseason transfer in his entire head coaching career. This year, he had three.
Rest of Big West Round Up
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The Big West Roundup is a weekly feature written by Abbey Mastracco for FoxSportsWest.com