Matadors Take on Portland State, Host Bethesda

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (2-7) returns to the court for a pair of contests this week as the Matadors visit Portland State on Thursday at 7 p.m. and host Bethesda on Sunday at 5 p.m. on the Blacktop @ The Matadome. Live stats, audio and video will be available for both contests and links may be found at GoMatadors.com. Sunday's contest will have a live video stream on the CSUN Sports Network through BigWest.TV.

Last week, the Matadors suffered a 70-55 setback to visiting Pepperdine on Saturday night and dropped a tight 65-61 decision at San Francisco on Monday.

The Matadors and Waves played a back-and-forth contest throughout most of the first half but a Pepperdine 8-0 run to the end the half coupled with a 9-0 run to start the second half gave the visitors a 49-32 advantage. CSUN trimmed the deficit to 12 with under 5:00 to go but was unable to come any closer the rest of the way.

Senior center Olalekan Ajayi tied a career-high in rebounds by grabbing 14 boards against Pepperdine. Sophomore Micheal Warren led the Matadors in scoring with 13 points while posting a career-high eight rebounds.

Two days later, CSUN battled San Francisco in a nail-biter. The Dons held a slim 29-26 lead at intermission before the Matadors took the lead with back-to-back field goals from Warren to start the second half. The game would remain tight over the remainder of the half as the Dons built an eight-point lead only to see the Matadors pull within 63-61 in the final minute.

In the end, San Francisco held on for a 65-61 win despite Tavrion Dawson's first career double-double. Dawson's 19 point, 11 rebound effort set new career highs in both categories for the sophomore.

Forward Tre Hale-Edmerson continued to move up the ranks in the CSUN record books last week. Already the school's all-time block leader with 142 in his career, Hale-Edmerson passed Mary Cooley (1964-67) for 10^th place on the CSUN all-time rebounds list. With 577 career rebounds, the senior is seven rebounds shy of tying Todd Bowser (1986-89, 90-91) for ninth place. Also, Hale-Edmerson is a steal away from moving into 10^th place on the school's all-time steal list and he is 14 starts way from tying Stephan Hicks (2011-15) for the most starts in CSUN history.

The Matadors hold a 9-5 edge in the all-time series with Portland State and have posted victories in five of the last seven meetings. CSUN fell 63-55 in The Matadome to the Vikings last November. Against Bethesda, the Matadors are 1-0 all-time as CSUN defeated the Flames 89-61 last February in the teams' first ever meeting.

A Closer Look at Portland State
The Vikings are 3-5 this season and have dropped their last three contests including falling to SIU-Edwardsville, 74-64, last Saturday. Portland State is 2-1 in games played at the Stott Center thus far this season and is 3-3 at home against CSUN all-time. Last season, Portland State finished in sixth place in the Big Sky Conference standings.

Senior forward Cameron Forte leads the Vikings in scoring and rebounding with 18.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while shooting 50.9 percent from the floor (59-for-116). Junior guard Bryce White is posting 12.0 points through five games this season and fellow junior Calaen Robinson is the team-leader in assists with 30 (3.8 apg). Robinson is averaging 9.6 points and is shooting 37.5 percent from behind the arc (15-for-40).

A Closer Look at Bethesda
Competing out of the National Christian College Athletic Association, the Flames are 1-7 this season and earned their first victory this year against Cal Lutheran, 59-56, last Wednesday. Bethesda fell to Antelope Valley, 82-73, on Friday. The Flames are scheduled for a busy week as they will travel to California Baptist on Tuesday, host Carroll on Friday and visit Hope International on Saturday before facing CSUN on Sunday.

Through eight contests, three Flames are averaging points in double figures. Junior guard/forward Geric Leath leads the Flames in scoring with 15.8 points while senior forward Mark Ware is posting 12.4 points and senior guard Justin Latham is averaging 10.1 ppg. Latham has averaged 3.0 assists this season while junior forward Curtis Wilson Jr. has been the team's top rebounder with 5.4 rebounds per game.

Matadors Take on Portland State, Host Bethesda

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Players Mentioned

Olalekan Ajayi

Tavrion Dawson

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Stephan Hicks

Micheal Warren