Hornets fall despite good second half showing

Last Wednesday's game was a tale of two halves.

The Fullerton Hornets made a spirited second half comeback against Riverside College, but their 27 turnovers were too much to overcome.

The game started off with Fullerton guard Steve Newton scoring the game's first two points from the line, after which Riverside went on a 20-0 run. Riverside's pressure defense affected the Hornet's offense at the beginning of the game, causing turnover after turnover. 

Fullerton went down 24-5 in the first half, but their aggressiveness of taking the ball to hold, and getting to the free throw line kept them in the game. 

They scored nine of their first 13 points from the charity strike, and cut a 19-point deficit down to just seven at the ten-minute mark in the first half, but it seemed like every time Fullerton went on a run, Riverside countered that with a run of their own. 

When asked about Riverside countering every run Fullerton made, freshmen guard Serdana Wright  said, "They're just a good team. You can only contain them. We played well. They just took good shots." 

Wright finished with 14 points, and three steals. Although Fullerton got the lead down to seven, Riverside pushed it back to twenty by the end of the half.

The second half was a whole different story. Fullerton came out with undeniable effort, and tenacity,Playing solid defense and causing some turnovers of their own from Riverside, who had a total of ten in the half.

Unlike the first  half  Fullerton took better care of the rock, only  committing six turnovers. They had 21 in the first half, so  Coach Smith‘s halftime speech  about protecting the ball was taken to heart.

Similar to the first half Fullerton got down early, 60-40, but little by little they began to chip away at Riverside's lead. 

They stepped it up on the defensive end. They only shot 34 percent from the field in the second half. Down from the 50 percent they shot in the first half.

The big men from Fullerton were getting physical with Riverside and Riverside's bigs couldn't match their intensity. 

Once again Fullerton got the lead back down to seven after guard Gregory Bewernick hit a three in the corner.

Momentum was on Fullerton's side, but a questionable 3-point foul against Fullerton took all that away. The guard from Riverside made all three free throws, pushing the lead back to ten, and that seemed to put the final nail in the coffin.

Although they lost Fullerton did outscore Riverside by ten points in the second half, 41 to 31. Wright believes had they played the way they did in the second half in the 1st the outcome would have been different. about.

"We came out with energy in the second half, and did everything we were supposed to do. We were consistent. We wern't in the first. Had we come out like we did in the second half in the 1st we would have won."

The Hornets have two games remaining on the season. They play Irvine Valley tonight at 7:30 p.m