FULLERTON, Calif. – Last season in the second game of the year, Cal State Fullerton guard Lionheart Leslie drove the lane and drilled a game-winning layup with 13 seconds left to lift the Titans to a one-point win over Pacific in Stockton, Calif.
Fast-forward to Saturday night and the fate of the game was in Leslie's hands once more as he drove the paint on Fullerton's last possession of the game. This time, he drew a foul and drilled a pair of free throws to complete a 20-point second half comeback for the Titans and give Fullerton a 78-77 victory over the Tigers at Titan Gym.
"That is amazing," said Titans head coach Dedrique Taylor. "Literally the exact same scenario."
Leslie matched his career high with 21 points on Saturday night, going 8-for-12 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line including the final two of the night to ice the game.
"All I thought about was; 'gotta get a bucket. Gotta get a bucket,'" Leslie said. "Coach drew up a play. If it was open he said go. It was open so I went and we got the 'W.'"
The Titans (3-5) trailed 61-41 with 12 minutes left in the game and went on to outscore the Tigers (3-4) 37-18 in the final 12 minutes, getting 12 points from Leslie and eight from Tre' Coggins in that stretch as both players tied for the team lead with 21 points.
Fullerton forced six Tigers turnovers in the final 12 minutes of the game and eight overall in the second half after going to a full-court press defense for the duration of the game.
"When coach told us to go into the press, we were all about it," Leslie said. "Because we knew we had to get stops late because we were down a good bit so coach told us to pick up the momentum and try to get the ball back on offense and keep attacking and play hard."
Kyle Allman, wearing a face mask to deal with a broken nose suffered last weekend in Las Vegas and coming off the bench for the first time this season, scored 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting and sank all four of his free throw attempts in 21 minutes, dishing out a team-high four assists. He scored half his points in the final 12 minutes of the game.
The Titans trailed by 11 at halftime after committing eight turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, but they responded by committing just two turnovers in the second half and finished the game with a season low 10 giveaways and outscored the Tigers 49-37 in the final period.
"What a game," Taylor said. "I can't say enough about this group in terms of their resiliency and the way that they played tonight in the second half. In the first half, we earned that deficit and I thought in the second half we earned that as well. To only turn the ball over two times in the second half, there was a lot of positive things that happened tonight and I thought our group, above all, pulled together tonight and everyone pitched in to get that win tonight."
The Titans will hit the road Wednesday night to face San Diego at the Jenny Craig Pavilion before returning to Titan Gym on Saturday night to host Southern Utah.
Notes: The last time the Titans overcame a 20-point deficit to win a game was January 7, 2016 at UC Riverside. Fullerton trailed 49-29 with 17:54 left in the second half before mounting a comeback and scoring a 79-73 victory on the road… Saturday night's win marked the first time the Titans have won a game when trailing at halftime. They are now 1-4 in those games… Dwight Ramos drew his first career start on Saturday night… Leslie set a new career high with eight field goals made… Allman led the team in assists for the fourth time this season, the most on the team. He's now led the team in assists in a game nine times in his career.
