California State University at Northridge
3-8
Oregon
7-3
Hicks Breaks All-Time Scoring Record in Loss at Oregon
12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
En Español
EUGENE, Ore. -
CSUN senior forward Stephan Hicks scored 19 points to set a new school record for a career with 1,644 in the Matadors' (3-8) 79-56 loss against the Oregon Ducks (7-3) in a non-conference game on Wednesday night at Matthew Knight Arena. Hicks added seven rebounds and teammate Stephen Maxwell recorded his 33rd career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the defeat.
"I've been extremely blessed and I'm thankful to have the opportunity to play DI basketball. To get the chance to break a record like this, it is amazing to me," said Hicks. "I want to give thanks to [former CSUN head coach] Bobby Braswell for believing in me and now Coach Theus. They both have believed in me and what I can do every night so I want to give thanks to them."
"Stephan is an absolute joy to coach. He's someone who pays very close attention to everything I tell him and he's allowed me to coach him," said CSUN head coach Reggie Theus. "In my opinion as much as anything, it's on the mental side. I try to give him the understanding of being aggressive and having a scorer's mentality. He also does a very good job defensively and works at it. I really enjoy coaching Hicks and I want to congratulate him on this achievement."
Hicks entered the game at Oregon needing 17 points to pass Brian Heinle's career mark of 1,641 set between 1997 and 2001. He paced the Matadors early on against the Ducks, scoring 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the first half alone.
The Matadors led for nearly 10 minutes in the first half, but a late swing for Oregon saw the home team with a 39-30 lead going into the break. CSUN went up by a point less than four minutes in and expanded its lead to seven after a Hicks tip-in with 11:34 to play in the half prompted a timeout by the Ducks.
However, an 8-0 run for Oregon put the Ducks ahead 17-16 with less than 10 minutes left in the half and a 7-2 run over the final two minutes put the Matadors down by nine going into the locker room. Devonte Elliott made a jumper on the first possession of the second half to cut the margin to seven points but it would be as close as the Matadors would get the rest of the way.
"I thought early in the game we were in control and I thought the guys came out and played well early," said Theus. "When we got tired, it started falling apart. We gave up three-pointers in the first half that allowed them to get up by nine. Outside of that, it would've been a one- or two-point ball game or we would've been up."
Hicks' layup on an assist from Landon Drew with 15:48 remaining put him atop the CSUN career scoring list. After breaking a record that stood for 13 seasons, Hicks may well distance himself from all others before his career at CSUN is through. The senior is averaging over 17 points per game with 21 regular season games remaining.
Hicks went 6-for-13 from the floor and 7-for-10 at the free-throw line in the game. Maxwell added 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting and finished 4-for-6 at the line. Drew tallied five points and led the team with four assists.
The Matadors will return home for their next game, which will be played Saturday, Dec. 20 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tipoff against the Islanders is set for 7 p.m. in The Matadome.
Related Link:
Stephan Hicks Sets CSUN All-Time Scoring Record (Audio) - Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister (Matadors Basketball Network - Learfield Sports)
