NORTHRIDGE, Calif. --- Kyle Allman hit his first seven shots of the game while Tre' Coggins and Khalil Ahmad combined for 38 points as Cal State Fullerton defeated CSUN 86-78 Saturday night at The Matadome.
The Titans (16-13, 10-6) finish the regular season winners of eight of their last 10 games and with the most overall and conference victories in a season since the 2011-12 campaign. The Titans, the No. 3 seed in the Big West Conference Tournament, will tangle once again with the No. 6 Matadors (11-17, 7-8) at Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at Honda Center.
Fullerton handed the Matadors their fifth straight loss to end the year after shooting 50 percent (27-for-54) from the field on Saturday night and out-rebounding the Matadors 37-34 on the night.
Allman set a new career high with 28 points on 9-for-14 shooting and did not miss his first shot until the second half, going 7-for-7 to start the game. Coggins added 21 points and tied his career high with eight rebounds while Ahmad added 17 points and five boards.
Lionheart Leslie continued to terrorize passing lanes as he led the team with three steals to go along with four points and five rebounds in 27 minutes.
Kendall Smith led CSUN with 24 points and senior Aaron Parks added 21 points in his last career home game.
Cal State Fullerton led by nine after one period thanks to some torrid shooting. The team went 17-for-28 (60.7 percent) from the field in the opening frame and Allman was a man possessed, going for 17 first-half points on 6-for-6 shooting, 1-for-1 from 3-point range and 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
Fullerton led by as much as 17 in the half but the Matadors finished the period on a 10-3 scoring run to trim the deficit to single digits.
Allman hit his first attempt of the second half and then went to the line, looking to stay perfect on that front. He hit the first attempt but clanged the second at the 17:08 mark. Exactly one minute later, Allman missed his first field goal on a 3-point attempt but the Titans still led by double figures in the early parts of the second half and eventually built a 15-point lead.
The Matadors would not go away though as they cut the Titans lead down to four on three occasions. But the Titans always found an answer with Ahmad essentially providing the dagger as he drove right from the top of the key and hit a layup under the arm of the CSUN defender and off glass, drawing a foul in the process. Ahmad converted the free throw to give Fullerton a 74-67 lead with 1:20 left. From then on, Fullerton took care of business at the charity stripe, hitting 12-of-14 free throws in the final 1:20.
NOTES: Saturday night's win was the 300th PCAA/Big West Conference victory in Fullerton's program history… Coggins finished the regular season with a 17.5 points per game average, winning the Big West scoring title… CSUN outscored the Titans 48-32 in the paint, just the fifth time this season that the Titans have lost the points in the paint battle and first time since Feb. 16 at UC Riverside… Fullerton snapped a four-game losing streak to CSUN and now lead the all-time series 42-35… The win also marked the first time since the 2011-12 season that the Titans have not suffered a conference season-sweep in a season.
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