CAL STATE FULLERTON GAME NOTES (PDF)
FULLERTON, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton men's basketball team will play UC Santa Barbara at 9 p.m. PT in the semifinal of the Big West Tournament on Friday. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
FROM THE TIP
• The Titans have reached the semifinal of the Big West Tournament for the third straight year after defeating UC Davis 75-71 in overtime in the opening round.
• Senior guard Kyle Allman, Jr., the Big West Player of the Week on Jan. 21 and a First-Team All-Big West honoree for the second straight year, is second on the team and fifth in the league in points per game at 17.9. He's second on the squad in assists and tied a career-high against Wake Forest (Nov. 16) with eight helpers. Of his 64 assists on the year, 20 of them have been to Jackson Rowe. The Brooklyn native has scored has scored 10+ in 47 of his last 50 games. Allman has scored 30+ eight times over the course of this season and last season. He has scored 20+ in eight of the last 13 games and 12 times total this season.
• Senior guard Khalil Ahmad, the Nov. 19 Big West Player of the Week and a Second-Team All-Big West honoree for the second straight year, is first on the team and fourth in the Big West in scoring at 18.2 points per game. He's also first in the league in steals per game at 1.7. For the year, he's scored 20+ 12 times, he's scored 10+ in 18 of the last 20 and poured in a career-high 40 points earlier this year against Monmouth.
• Ahmad became the 24th Titan in program history to score 1,000 points in a career after scoring 31 at UC Davis (Feb. 10, 2018). He has totaled 1,714 points in his career, the third-best mark in the program. Allman joined him in the 1K Club on Feb. 28 when he scored 23 points at CSUN (Feb. 16, 2018). He sits 1,639 points for his career, No. 5 all-time. Jackson Rowe is just 7 points away from becoming the 26th Titan to eclipse 1,000-career points.
• Junior forward Jackson Rowe, the two-time Big West Player of the Week this season (Jan. 7, 28) Big West Honorable Mention recipient for the second straight year, has been doing a bit of everything on the floor this year for the Titans. He is averaging 11.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocks per game. He leads the team in both rebounds and blocks and is third in assists. He's shooting an impressive 54.3% (134-247) from the field this year, the No. 5 mark in the league. The Toronto native has posted six double-doubles on the year and averaged 8.7 rebounds per game in league play. He moved into fifth all-time in career rebounds with 643, just passing Cedric Ceballos and right behind Pape Sow, both former Titans that played in the NBA.
2018 BIG WEST TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
The Titans won the league tournament for the third time in program history. In the quarterfinal round, the No. 4 seeded CSF defeated Long Beach State by a score of 76-74 with the Titans getting a defensive stop on the final possession to secure the win. In the semifinal matchup against No. 1 seed UC Davis, the Titans came back from a 13-point deficit in the second half to beat the Aggies 55-52. After two nail biters, CSF cruised to a 71-55 victory over UC Irvine in the final, leading for over 36 minutes of the game and played what head coach Dedrique Taylor called, the team's best game of the year. The trio of Allman, Ahmad and Rowe combined to score 145 of the 202 points CSF scored in those three games.
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN...AND EIGHT
Each of the three times the Titans have qualified for the NCAA Tournament it has been in seasons that end in 7-8. CSF went to the "Elite Eight" in 1977-78, played in the first round in 2007-08 as well as 2017-18. In both 2007-08 and 2017-18, CSF played UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament final and earned victories on both occasions.
FRIDAY, MARCH 15 VS. UC SANTA BARBARA || 9 PM PT
Series Record: 40-48
Home Record: 23-20
Away Record: 15-27
Neutral Record: 1-1
Current Streak: L1
First Meeting: 12/29/76 at UCSB, W, 77-66
Last Meeting: 02/23/19 UCSB, L, 82-67
UCSB NOTES
The Gauchos are 22-9 overall and went 10-6 in the conference on the year. The Titans swept the season series with both home teams winning by double-digits.
Ar'mond Davis leads the team and is ninth in the league in scoring at 13.3 points per game as the Gauchos have five players averaging double figures. Amadou Sow is tops in the league in field goal percentage at 56.6 while scoring 12.2 points per game.
JACK OF ALL TRADES
For CSF, junior guard Austen Awosika is fourth on the team in scoring (7.8 points per game), first in assists (116 total, 3.74 per game), third in blocks (16 total), second in steals (1.32 per game) and second in rebounding (4.9 per game). He led the team in the category last year and is tops on the team again this year in assist percentage (an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals assisted while on the floor) at 23.3%. He has the fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league at 1.8. He dished out a career-high 11 assists at UCR on Feb. 9 and has recorded two double-doubles this season.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
Per KenPom, the Titans have the No. 15 ranked non-conference schedule in the country. The squad played just four non-conference home games.
A NEW SEASON
The Titans were a different team thus far in Big West Conference play. The team shot 46.1% from the field, and shot better than 50% in seven of those games while holding the opponents to a collective 42.4% shooting.
Fullerton averaged 16.3 made free throws during league play while the opponents made just 12.9 per game.
50 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
Dating back to last season, the Titans are undefeated when shooting 50% or better from the field. In a sense, that isn't all that surprising since teams usually win when they shoot the ball well. However, the Titans are 7-0 this year and were 14-0 last year when eclipsing the 50% mark, and that feels impressive.
UPDATING THE RECORD BOOKS
In addition to Khalil Ahmad and Kyle Allman, Jr. climbing the rankings of all-time points as a Titan, the duo added their names to the list of individual scoring performances in a single game this season. Ahmad scored 40 points against Monmouth (Nov. 18) and had a historic day, setting career highs in points (40), field goals made (13, on just 22 shots) and three-point field goals made (8). He is just the fifth Titan to ever score 40 points or more in a game, joining Bobby Brown, Tre' Coggins, Josh Akognon and Kyle Allman, Jr. Ahmad's 40 points was the highest point total ever in a men's basketball game at the HTC Center, breaking the previous record of 36 set by Quinton Wood on Dec. 13, 2013.
Allman scored 38 points at Hofstra (Nov. 21), tied for the seventh-best scoring performance in a single game in program history and just two points off his career-high. He knocked down a career-high eight three-point field goals, improving on his previous best of five. Allman now has four of the top 30 scoring performances in CSF history while Ahmad has two.
Allman has played the most games in a Titan uniform in program history. He just broke Gary Davis' record of 121 and now sits at 124. Ahmad is tied for sixth at 114 games played.
Jackson Rowe is fifth all-time in career rebounds with 644, just ahead of CSF legend Cedric Ceballos with 618. He's also 7 points away from becoming the 26th Titan to score 1,000 career points.
ONLY TWO NEW FACES
The Titans just two newcomers to the squad this season in freshman guard Wayne Arnold and forward Amel Kuljuhovic. Arnold prepped at Dominguez High School in Compton while Kuljuhovic is a transfer from Lake Land College. Arnold is a high-level shooter as he showed against West Coast Baptist when he scored 23 points to lead all scorers, including four three-point field goals. He has played in all of the games this season and is averaging 3.0 points and 12.1 minutes per game.
Kuljuhovic has the size to work down low but can also stretch the defense with his jump shot. He is averaging 2.5 points and 23 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per game. He scored 7 points and hauled in 7 rebounds at San Francisco (Dec. 16).
BIG WEST FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR HISTORY
Senior guard Khalil Ahmad and junior forward Jackson Rowe are two of the last three Big West Freshman of the Year honorees. Ahmad put together one of the best freshman campaigns in program history during the 2015-16 season. He holds the freshman school records in points (429), scoring average (14.3), field goals made (138) and free throws made, attempted and percentage (112-144, .778).
Rowe claimed the award in 2016-17 by scoring 10.4 points per game (No. 4 in CSF freshman history) and 7.2 rebounds per game (No. 2 in CSF freshman history). Rowe also shot 55.2 percent from the field on the year, the second-best mark in school history for freshmen.
AROUND THE WORLD
The Titans have four student-athletes on the team from outside the United States. Junior Jackson Rowe is a native of Toronto, Ontario in Canada. Senior Dominik Heinzl is from Uzov, Czech Republic, redshirt freshman Gaber Ozegovic hails from Kranj, Slovenia and sophomore Johnny Wang is a native of Beijing, China. Not only international but the Titans are spread out among the country, with student-athletes from Iowa, New York, Texas and Minnesota.
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 (@FullertonMBB) and Instagram accounts (@FullertonMBB).
