FULLERTON — DJ Brewton was looking for a change of scenery and the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball program was more than happy to roll out the welcome mat.
Brewton, a graduate transfer who played three seasons at Alcorn State in Mississippi, displayed what he can bring on Friday night, scoring 19 points to help the Titans to a 64-54 victory over visiting North Dakota at Titan Gym.
The victory helped make up for a 73-57 loss at North Dakota last season.
“The returners were talking about how bad it had gotten last year at their place, so I wanted to get (the win) more so for them than myself,” said Brewton, who was Alcorn State’s leading scorer last season at 12 points per game.
Max Jones scored 13 points and Beril Kabamba contributed 10 for the Titans (3-4), who ended North Dakota’s six-game winning streak.
Vincent Lee, who came in shooting 19 for 21 from the field this season, made all three of his attempts and scored seven points. Grayson Carter continued to struggle with his long-distance shooting, but he gathered seven rebounds and blocked three shots.
Fullerton also received a key contribution off the bench from forward John Mikey Square, who had not attempted a shot in his first five games and lost his starting role in the process. He scored five of his six points in the final six minutes to help hold off the Fighting Hawks (6-2).
The Titans, playing just their second home game of the season, took a 13-point lead into the second half and maintained a double-digit advantage until North Dakota went on an 8-0 run to cut it to 43-36 with 11:35 left.
Fullerton went just over five minutes without a field goal before Jones converted a three-point play to extend the lead to 46-36 with 9:56 remaining.
The Fighting Hawks made another push to get within three points with 5:21 to go, but Brewton converted a three-point play to extend the advantage back to six points.
North Dakota pulled back within four with 1:55 remaining, but those were the final points for the visitors.
Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said the Titans will need to rely on their defense more than ever this season and they stepped up at the right time on Friday.
“We finished the game with five stops in a row,” Taylor said. “The more that these guys understand that, they believe it, they buy into it, the better off we’ll be, but right now we’ve got to fight for that type of identity.”
The Titans made four of their first five shots to take an early 9-5 lead, but then missed seven straight shots, allowing the Fighting Hawks to briefly move ahead for their only lead.
Zachary Visentin came off the bench and ended the drought with a post move to put Fullerton back in front 11-10.
“Shots are going to fall, shots are not going to fall, but that shouldn’t affect what you’re doing defensively,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to do a better job of turning our defense into our offense.”
North Dakota missed 16 of its first 21 shots but was helped by seven offensive rebounds.
Brewton scored eight points during a 10-3 run that gave the Titans their first double-digit lead at 27-17 with 5:25 left in the first half.
The lead swelled to as many as 15 points before Fullerton took a 34-21 lead at halftime.
North Dakota shot 28.1% from the floor in the first half.
Brewton said the biggest adjustment has been playing in space, especially with talented offensive players on the team like Jones and Tory San Antonio, who has yet to play this season because of a foot injury.
“When you have guys that are like a Max or a Tory, who can get their own (shot) at will, it’s good sometimes to stay out of their way,” Brewton said. “Sometimes, when things get hectic, I can just run to go get the ball and now, I can just get away from the ball. I can trust certain guys to just go to work.”
