Matadors Square Off With UC Irvine on ESPN3

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (7-13, 2-4 BWC) continues its Big West Conference slate on Wednesday night against visiting UC Irvine on the Blacktop @ The Matadome at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN3 and a live audio feed will be available on the CSUN Sports Network with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.

In last week's games, the Matadors posted a thrilling come-from-behind 76-74 victory against the Cal Poly Mustangs at The Matadome on Thursday. Two days later, CSUN took a lead into the second half against UC Santa Barbara but the Matadors would fall in the end, 74-61.

Against the Mustangs, the Matadors competed in their third-straight game that was decided by three points or less. After dropping two-straight games by a combined four points against UC Davis and UC Riverside the week prior, the Matadors trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half to Cal Poly but rallied in the final minutes. CSUN outscored the Mustangs 29-16 over the final 9:21 to earn the victory. Jerron Wilbut scored 12 points in the second half including hitting the game-winning 3-pointer with 00:18 remaining. Wilbut finished with a team-high 15 points in 19 minutes of action. Three other Matadors finished in double-figures including Zacarry Douglas (11), Tre Hale-Edmerson (10) and Aaron Parks (10).

Last Saturday, the Matadors and Gauchos played a back-and-forth first half as UCSB built a 10-point advantage in the opening stanza before the Matadors stormed back to take a 32-31 lead into intermission. After the break, UCSB responded with a 14-0 run in the opening minutes of the half to seize control of the contest. CSUN rallied to trim the deficit to 59-54 with 7:36 remaining but the Matadors would not get any closer the rest of the way. Kendall Smith led all scorers with 20 points in the contest while Wilbut chipped in with 11 points off the bench.

Already CSUN's all-time block leader (173), Hale-Edmerson has been moving up numerous top statistical categories in school history throughout his senior campaign. After moving into the all-time CSUN Top 10 in steals, rebounds and minutes already this season, Hale-Edmerson pushed his career assist total to 268 last week, bringing him two shy of tenth place.

Heading into the matchup with UC Irvine, Smith is averaging 17.8 points and 3.4 assists for the Matadors. Micheal Warren is scoring 13.8 points per game on 47.0 percent shooting (86-for-183) and both Tavrion Dawson (10.9) and Parks (10.4) are also posting double figure points per game. Olalekan Ajayi continues to lead the team in rebounding with 7.7 and Dawson is second with 6.3.

UC Irvine leads the all-time series with CSUN 30-24 including taking both meetings last season. The Anteaters recorded an 80-49 win at The Matadome last January and held off CSUN at home, 67-58, four weeks later. CSUN is 14-11 all-time at home in the series and has not lost back-to-back games at home to UCI since losing twice over a two-season span in the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons.

A Closer Look at UC Irvine
The Anteaters are tied with Hawai'i atop the Big West standings with a conference record of 5-0. UCI is 16-5 overall this season and has won six-straight games overall. In their only contest last week, the Anteaters posted a 72-59 victory at home against Cal State Fullerton. As a defensive unit, UCI leads the conference in allowing the fewest points per game with 63.0.

Luke Nelson leads the Anteaters in scoring with 12.5 points and the junior has knocked down a team-leading 43 3-point field goals. Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye is shooting 64.7 percent from the field (90-for-139) while averaging 12.0 points. Ndiaye also leads UCI in rebounding with 7.2 and he is tops in the conference in blocked shots per game with 2.4.

Matadors Square Off With UC Irvine on ESPN3

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Players Mentioned

Olalekan Ajayi

Tavrion Dawson

Zacarry Douglas

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith

Micheal Warren

Jerron Wilbut