With the SF State men's basketball team trailing by double-figures with less than 11 minutes to go in regulation, head coach Bill Treseler knew he had to do something to get his team back in the game.

So he asked his players to switch from man-to-man to zone defense -- where each defensive player is given an area to cover.

The change in strategy paid off.

Defense turned into offense and the Gators closed out the game on a 20-8 run ralling past Cal State LA in a thrilling 69-67 win on Friday in the SF State main gymnasium.

"We had a hard time defending them, so we switched," Treseler said. "We started to drive more to the basket and that stabilized our inside game."

But in the waning seconds, the purple and gold almost gave the game away.

As the Gators inbounded the ball, forward Will Logan and guard Alex Thomas miscommunicated on a play, resulting in a turnover, and a Golden Eagles possession.

With eight seconds to go, the Eagles' Donte Bell dribbled down the lane, pulled up for a 15-foot turnaround jumper that hit the front of the rim. The Gators survived and held onto the win.

"The difference of the game was our defense," said Thomas, who tallied a game-high 15 points and had five assists. "We slowly chipped away and made stops."

Like he has done all season, Robert Hayes came through in the clutch.

The relentless point guard hit a long three with the shot clock running down to give the Gators a 67-64 lead.

After Eagles' Artis Gant countered with a three of his own to tie the game, Hayes criss-crossed through multiple defenders, went up for a layup and drew a foul.

He knocked down a pair of free-throws to give the Gators the lead and win.

"I like playing in these moments," said Hayes, who scored 14 points in 32 minutes.

Senior guard Darryl Robinson finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds.

With the win, the Gators split the season series with the Eagles, with each team winning on its home floor. The Eagles squeaked by the Gators 67-65 in the previous meeting on Jan. 10 in Los Angeles.

Treseler was thrilled by his team's resiliency.

"We showed our toughness tonight," Treseler said. "They were outplaying us and we picked ourselves off the floor."

In their latest game, the Gators ran into one of the CCAA's best in the Cal State Dominquez Hills Toros.

Coming into the match-up, the Toros had the third-best defense and was ranked first in scoring in the conference, beating teams by an average 10 points per game.

On a stormy Valentine's Day, they showed it.

Behind red-hot perimeter shooting and tough-nose defense, the Toros overwhelmed the Gators 74-57.

"They played very good defense," said Treseler. "You got to play through mistakes, and play with a level of physicality."

The Gators had trouble with the Toros' front court, who began working the Gators' smaller lineup inside the low block. But it was the three-point barrage that hurt the Gators the most.

In almost every possession, the Toros swung the ball to perfection, finding the open man. Dominquez Hills connected on 10 of 14 from beyond the arc, including 4 of 5 by Jonathan Toliver for 16 points.

The Gators were out-of-sync from the start, except for Hayes, who pulled in a game-high 28 points. No other Gator scored more than six points.

"I didn't have the right combination of guys," said a disappointed Treseler, whose team fell to 13-10 overall and are 7-9 in the CCAA.

Plagued by foul trouble, Thomas perhaps had his worst game of the season, if not his career.

The six-foot-two senior guard was held to three points on four field goal attempts in 21 minutes of action.