GAME 29
Cal State Fullerton at CSUN
Saturday, March 4 | 7:30 p.m.
Northridge, Calif. | The Matadome
Live Stream: BigWest.TV
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Live Audio: CSUN Sports Network
Series Record: Fullerton Leads 41-35
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. --- Cal State Fullerton wraps up the 2016-17 regular season Saturday night as it heads to Northridge, Calif. to take on CSUN at 7:30 p.m.
OPPONENT & HISTORY
CSUN | 7:30 p.m. | BigWest.TV
Saturday, March 4 | The Matadome
The Titans enter the final game of the season on a roll, winning seven of their last nine games after upending UC Santa Barbara in the Titan Gym finale on Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Matadors are trying to put a halt to their current four-game losing streak and battle for position for the upcoming the Big West Tournament next week.
Head-To-Head:
The Titans and Matadors are slated to meet for the 77th time on Saturday night. The Titans currently hold the edge in the all-time series, 41-35, but the Matadors have won four straight meetings including one earlier this season. The Titans are looking to avoid their second straight season sweep at the hands of the Matadors.
Last Meeting:
Cal State Fullerton was outscored by double digits in the second half and that was the difference as CSUN defeated the Titans, 70-65, in a Big West Conference tilt on Jan. 7 at Titan Gym. The Titans were led by Lionheart Leslie's 17 points and Tre' Coggins added 11 but the Matadors had four players score in double figures and scored 15 points off 15 Titans turnovers. The Matadors also grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and turned that into 10 second-chance points.
LOOKING FOR 300
Cal State Fullerton is in its 43rd season as a member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association/Big West Conference. The team will be looking to land its 300th conference victory all-time on Saturday night. The Titans currently hold an overall record of 299-392 all-time after Thursday's win against UC Santa Barbara. The PCAA changed its name to the Big West Conference in the 1988-89 season and since then, the Titans hold a 196-289 record. Fullerton won regular season titles in 1975-76 (PCAA) and 2007-08 (Big West) and conference tournament championships in 1977-78 (PCAA) and 2007-08 (Big West). From 1967-74, CSF played in the California Collegiate Athletic Association and posted a 24-36 mark.
LAST TIME OUT - CAL STATE FULLERTON 65, UC SANTA BARBARA 54
The night started with a ceremony honoring Cal State Fullerton's seniors before the game tipped off. The upperclassmen made sure there was a celebration following the game as well. Tre' Coggins led all scorers with 20 points and Lionheart Leslie had a tremendous all-around performance with eight points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals as the Titans downed UC Santa Barbara, 65-54, Thursday night at Titan Gym on senior night. The Titans led for the majority of the game despite a few scoring runs from the feisty Gauchos, who outshot Fullerton 44.4 percent to 42.1 percent. The Titans ran out all four seniors in the starting lineup on Thursday night and the team came out firing, taking a double-digit lead early on. Kyle Allman added 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting as he helped carry a bulk of the workload, playing 33 minutes on the night. Khalil Ahmad was the only other player to log 20-plus minutes on the night as he scored nine points in 24 minutes of play. The Titans had 13 players log some playing time on the night.
WHAT'S THE, WHAT'S THE SCENARIO? A WILD SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE WEST
Fullerton clinched the No. 3 seed with Thursday's win against UC Santa Barbara and is locked into that seed regardless of Saturday night's outcomes in their game or any other Big West contest. With the NCAA's decision Friday to allow Hawai'i to participate in postseason play, the Gauchos were also eliminated from the Big West Tournament race with the loss. The Titans will face the No. 6 seed in Thursday's quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament. The possible opponent scenarios are as follows:
- The Titans and UC Riverside are locked in to the No. 3 and No. 8 seeds respectively.
- The Matadors need to win Saturday night against CSF to have a chance at the No. 5 seed, which is dependent on the outcome of the Long Beach State-Hawai'i game. The winner of that game will clinch the No. 4 seed while the loser would fall to either the No. 5 or No. 6 seed. If Hawai'i loses, the Rainbow Warriors own the head-to-head tiebreaker and would nestle into the No. 5 seed while CSUN takes the No. 6 slot. IF Long Beach State loses, the Matadors own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the 49ers; thus CSUN would earn the No. 5 spot while the 49ers get the No. 6 slot.
- If the Titans defeat CSUN, then the Matadors would need to sweat the outcome of the Cal Poly-UC Santa Barbara tilt. Should the Mustangs beat the Gauchos in this scenario, the Mustangs claim the No. 6 seed while CSUN would fall to the No. 7. A Cal Poly loss locks the Mustangs into the No. 7 slot and the Matadors into the No. 6 hole and another match-up with Fullerton on Thursday. A Titans win also means that the result of the 49ers-Rainbow Warriors game would lock the winner into the No. 4 seed and loser into the No. 5 slot.
-Meanwhile, UC Davis and UC Irvine are tied atop the conference standings and will duke it out for the Big West Conference regular season title at the Bren Events Center on Saturday night, which will determine the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Big West Tournament.
AVOIDING THE BROOM CLOSET
Cal State Fullerton will look to accomplish something on Saturday night that it has not done since the 2011-12 season; avoid a season-sweep in conference play. Fullerton has split five of its season series with conference opponents (UC Irvine, UC Davis, Long Beach State, Hawai'i and UC Riverside) and swept two (UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly) series. They have yet to be swept by a conference team in Big West play this year, a feat CSUN will attempt to accomplish on Saturday night.
PROTECT THIS HOUSE
Cal State Fullerton wrapped up the 2016-17 home schedule on Thursday night with a victory and thus finished the year with a 12-3 record at Titan Gym, Fullerton's best home record since the Titans went 13-1 in 2011-12. It's also the 13th time since the 1974-75 season that the Titans have recorded double-digit home victories in a season. The Titans have won 12 games two times (2006-07 the last) and 13 games twice (2011-12, 1982-83).
NEWS ON THE BBC: BUCKING THE TREND
Fullerton recorded its 15th victory of the season on Thursday night. It is the most wins by a Titans team since the 2011-12 season when they went 21-10 and finished as the No. 2 seed in the conference. Furthermore, Fullerton recorded it's ninth win in conference, locking up a winning record in the Big West for the first time since the 2011-12 season and just the second time since the 2008-09 season. In fact, it's just the fifth time since the 1999-2000 season that Fullerton has logged a winning record in conference.
MOST IMPROVED
According to Wednesday's NCAA stats report, the Titans are currently ranked as the 39th most improved team in the nation with two games left to play. Fullerton has five more victories than last season and seven fewer losses than 2015-16. The average difference of 6.0 ranks 39th.
DON'T FEED THE LIONS
Senior Lionheart Leslie had a memorable senior night as the Houma, La. native set a new career best with six assists while committing no turnovers. Also, the 5-foot-9 guard recorded four steals in a game for the fourth straight time in the win over UCSB. He's now recorded 21 steals in his last six games and has upped his season average to 1.5 steals a game, which along with his 41 total steals ranks him third in the Big West Conference.
TRE' X 300 = EXCELLENCE
Senior Tre' Coggins logged his 20th career 20-point game as a Titan on Thursday night. He also surpassed the 900-point mark, giving him 904 points in 55 career games at Fullerton. His 16.4 points per game career average currently ranks him No. 15 on the Cal State Fullerton all-time scoring list. Including his time at Air Force, Coggins has scored 1,410 points in his NCAA Division I career and that mark would place him eighth on the Fullerton all-time points list had they all come with the Titans.
INJURY REPORT
Freshman Jackson Rowe missed his first career game Thursday night with a foot injury. He is currently listed as day-to-day. In his first season with Fullerton, Rowe is averaging 10.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. He is ranked third in the Big West in rebounding average and second in the conference in field goal percentage (.546).
THIS IS A HOLDUP!
The Titans have turned up the pressure on the passing lanes of late and that trend continued on Thursday night against the Gauchos. Fullerton recorded seven more steals on Thursday and have now tallied 71 steals in its last eight games, an 8.88 per game average. They've recorded double-digit steals in a game four times this season including 11 at Hawai'i. Overall, Fullerton is now averaging 6.7 steals per game this season, which ranks second in the Big West behind CSUN's 6.9 spg average.
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
Cal State Fullerton recorded a season-low eight turnovers on Thursday night against UCSB. It was only the second time this season that Fullerton has recorded single-digit turnovers, with the other occasion coming on Feb. 2 at UCSB, when the Titans turned it over nine times.
PRIME POSITION
With the Titans locking up the No. 3 seed in next week's Big West Tournament, Fullerton is in a spot where it has a tradition of success. The Titans have been the No. 3 seed in the tournament six times and played 16 games in that slot. They are 12-4 in those games and the last time they were the No. 3 seed in the Big West Tournament, the Titans went 3-0 to win the conference tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament in 2007-08.
WORKING OVERTIME
The Titans are 2-3 in overtime games this season following Saturday night's loss at Hawai'i with both wins coming at home. While the Titans won a double overtime game against Portland State, the win over Portland on Dec. 22 marked Fullerton's first win in a single-OT game since Jan. 8, 2011 when the Titans defeated UC Riverside, 83-77, on the road. Under head coach Dedrique Taylor, the Titans are currently 2-8 in games that go into overtime. The five overtime games this year mark the most overtime games in a season in Taylor's tenure. This season also marks the second time a Fullerton team has played multiple overtime games in a season under Taylor. The Titans played three overtime games during the 2014-15 campaign.
TITANS TEAM RANKS
The Titans are second in the Big West Conference in blocks per game (3.8) and total blocks (106), defensive rebounds per game (26.57) and overall rebounding at 37.43 a game. Additionally, Fullerton is ranked third in the Big West in scoring average (73.0 ppg), fourth in field goal percentage (44.5%), and second in field goal percentage defense (42.2%).
PAINT BY NUMBERS
Cal State Fullerton has outscored its opponents 888-695 in the paint this season. The Titans have been outscored in the paint four times this season after UCR outscored them 32-20 on Feb. 16. Prior to that, Fullerton had not been outscored in the paint since Jan. 14 at UC Irvine.
ON DECK FOR THE TITANS
The Titans will be the No. 3 seed in the Big West Conference Tournament and will face Long Beach State, CSUN or Cal Poly pending Saturday night's results. The time of the game is also yet to be determined.
SUPPORT THE TITANS!
Fans can purchase tickets for various Cal State Fullerton athletic events by visiting FullertonTitans.com/Tickets. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 657-278-2783 or by email at athletictixs@fullerton.edu. The Ticket Office is located at the Titan House off of Gymnasium Drive at the eastern end of the Intramural Fields and is open from 10 am – 4 pm PT, Monday – Friday.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (@FullertonTitans) and Snapchat (FullertonTitans). In addition, the basketball team has established its own Twitter (@FullertonHoops) and Instagram accounts (@FullerotonHoops).