FULLERTON, Calif. --- Senior guard Luke Nelson scored 20 points, but league-leading UC Irvine fell to Cal State Fullerton, 56-54, Wednesday night at Titan Gym as the Big West Conference race became even tighter with two weeks to go in the regular season.
The Anteaters (16-13, 9-4), have a half-game lead over UC Davis for the top spot with six teams within two games of first.
UCI led 27-24 at halftime and extended the margin to six points at 39-33 with 10:11 remaining, but Fullerton scored eight consecutive points and eventually went ahead for good at 44-41 on a three from Lionheart Leslie with 6:16 left as the Titans defeated the 'Eaters for the first time in five years. UCI had won 10 straight in the series entering Wednesday's contest.
Fullerton took a 55-51 lead on a free throw by Khalil Ahmad with 13 seconds remaining, but Nelson nailed a three to pull the Anteaters within one at 55-54 with three seconds left.
Tre' Coggins hit one of two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining for a 56-54 Titan lead.
UCI immediately called timeout after grabbing the rebound off the missed free throw. The Anteaters threw a full-court pass and called another timeout with nine-tenths of a second left.
After Fullerton called a timeout of its own, the ball was inbounded to Nelson in front of the UCI bench, but he could not get a shot off as time expired.
Leslie scored nine of his 11 points in the second half as Fullerton improved to 14-12 and 8-5 in the Big West.
Senior guard Jaron Martin had 12 points for the 'Eaters, hitting 4 of 8 threes, as he is tied for sixth all-time (with Chris Brown) at UCI with 170 career treys.
Nelson, with his 20 points, now has scored 1,395 in his career to move into eighth place all-time at UCI.
He also connected on four threes Wednesday night to boost his career total to 233, tying him with Ross Schraeder (2002-06) for second in the UCI record book and just three behind all-time leader Michael Hunter, who hit 236 triples from 2006-10.
Senior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos and freshman guard Eyassu Worku scored seven points apiece, and Dimakopoulos registered a career-high four assists.
Sophomore forward Jonathan Galloway pulled down eight rebounds while Dimakopoulos and freshman forward Tommy Rutherford had six boards each.
Coggins led Fullerton with 17 points while Jackson Rowe had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The Titans snared 19 offensive boards and outrebounded UCI, 47-39. Fullerton scored 14 second-chance points to seven for the 'Eaters.
UCI shot 34.7 percent from the field and hit 12 of 21 free throws. The Titans hit 31.4 percent of their shots and were 8 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Fullerton outscored the 'Eaters, 26-16 in the paint and the Titans had 12 turnovers to 15 for UCI.
The Anteaters host CSUN Saturday night at 7:30 in the Homecoming game at the Bren Events Center.
UCI travels to UC Riverside next Wednesday (March 1) before closing out the regular season hosting UC Davis in the Bren Center March 4 at 3:00 p.m.
The Big West Tournament is at the Honda Center in Anaheim March 9-11.
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