IRVINE, CA - Luke Nelson scored 15 points and Mamadou Ndiaye scored 12 points and blocked 6 shots Thursday night to lead UC Irvine to a 68-62 Big West Conference victory over Cal State Fullerton.

Irvine (18-11, 11-4) blocked 10 shots overall as the Titans (9-21, 1-14) shot only 38 percent from the floor in dropping their eighth consecutive game.  Lanerryl Johnson hit three 3-pointers  in the final minute to lead Fullerton with 21 points.  Alex Harris had 15 and Kennedy Esume added 10.  He and Harris each had 6 rebounds.

Fullerton used a 9-2 run capped by an Esume dunk to close to 44-40 with 7 minutes left.  Will Davis II scored twice to counter a Harris layup to make it 48-42.  Johnson then missed a trey that rebounded long to Harris, who also missed from the arc.  Travis Souza hit a trey at the other end and UCI hit its next two tries as well and it was 58-46 with 3:36 to go. 

In the final 4 minutes, CSF outscored UCI, 18-13, to cap a game that saw a first-half score of 25-22 in favor of UCI.  Neither team led by more than 3 points as CSF shot 27 percent and UCI made only 33 percent of its shots.

"The game came down to they made shots," said CSF coach Dedrique Taylor.

"We got it down to four points, missed a couple of threes and they made a couple and it got away from us.

"I applaud our effort, we just didn't make shots.  And when they block 10 shots you've got to respect their defense."

Ndiaye, the 7-foot-6 center, led all rebounders with 8.  Nelson got 9 of his points at the foul line in 10 attempts.  UCI made 23 of 32 free throws while Fullerton was 10 of 15.

Johnson finished 8 of 14 from the floor and made 4 of 5 3-pointers.

Fullerton concludes its season Saturday at 5:03 p.m. vs. Hawai'i.  It will be the final TItan game for seniors Harris, Steve McClellan, Moses Morgan, Josh Gentry and Corey Walker.