CSUN Falls to Pepperdine, 55-70

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Northridge, CA – The CSUN Matadors (2-6) fell to the Pepperdine Waves (4-4) on Saturday night on The Blacktop @ The Matadome, 55-70.

CSUN finished with 34 points in the paint to Pepperdine's 38 and 20 second chance points to Pepperdine's 22, but allowed the Waves 25 points off turnovers.

Sophomore Micheal Warren led the Matadors in scoring on the night with 13 points and eight rebounds and senior Olalekan Ajayi led the team in rebounds with 14. Senior Tre Hale-Edmerson contributed nine points, five rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal.

Hale-Edmerson's rebounds moved him into sole possession of the #10 spot on CSUN's all-time rebounds list. He also is among CSUN's top 10 in four other categories, blocks (#1), games started (#4), minutes (#10) and fouls (#2). Two more steals will tie him for the 10^th spot in that career category as well.

"I thought our defensive scheme was perfect; our inability to guard our guys one-on-one is where the problem is," said CSUN Head Coach Reggie Theus. "It really bores down to the 25 points off turnovers, that's where the game was."

The first points of the game were scored on a a fast basket by Hale-Edmerson with an assist from freshman Jason Richardson. A jumper by Warren followed by a Richardson layup put the game at 6-8, Pepperdine, just under five minutes in.

Sophomore Tavrion Dawson added three points on an and one to bring the score to 9-11, Pepperdine, and CSUN narrowed the gap to tie the game at 13 on a Warren layup.

It stayed a back-and-forth game for several minutes, but Pepperdine slowly pulled away. The Matadors fought back, however, and a 3-pointer by senior Landon Drew and a jump shot by Warren tied the game at 32. That's where the Matadors would stay for the final two and a half minutes of the first period, and the teams went to the locker room with CSUN trailing 32-40.

Warren scored eight points for CSUN in the first half and helped with three rebounds and a steal. Ajayi had seven boards and Drew contributed six points on 3-pointers. Twelve of CSUN's points were second chances and the Matadors hit for 18 in the paint.

The Matadors started off the second half slowly, allowing the Waves to widen their lead, until Ajayi hit a layup to get things moving. He followed with another layup and two free throws to narrow the score to 38-51, Pepperdine.

Hale-Edmerson then hit a layup before grabbing his third board of the game, which moved him onto the all-time top 10 list, with the Matadors trailing 38-53. Sophomore Zacarry Douglas and Richardson each contributed high-energy baskets with around two minutes left and Warren hit a 3 with 30 seconds left in the game, but it wasn't enough to pull the Matadors even with the Waves.

For Pepperdine, guard Lamond Murray Jr. scored 21 points – more than a third of Pepperdine's points on the night – and guard Amadi Udenyi led the team in assists with five. Murray also led the team in rebounds with five.

Up next, the Matadors travel to the University of San Francisco to face the Dons in War Memorial Gymnasium on Monday at 7:00 p.m. Ten days later, CSUN heads to Portland to take on Portland State on Thursday, December 17.

PHOTO GALLERY:

(12/6/2015) MBB 120515 vs. Pepperdine

CSUN Falls to Pepperdine, 55-70

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Team Stats

Micheal Warren

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Olalekan Ajayi

Tavrion Dawson

Players Mentioned

Olalekan Ajayi

Tavrion Dawson

Zacarry Douglas

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Jason Richardson

Micheal Warren