CSUN Fights Back But Drops Game to UC Irvine, 73-63

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Los Angeles, CA – The CSUN Matadors (7-14, 2-5 BWC) fell to the UC Irvine Anteaters (17-5, 6-0 BWC) on Wednesday night in The Matadome, 73-63. After an even, hard-fought first half by CSUN, the Anteaters, who remain undefeated in conference play, pulled ahead in the second half despite a comeback by the Matadors at the end.

Junior Aaron Parks led the Matadors in scoring on the night with a season-high 17 points, three rebounds and three assists. Senior Tre Hale-Edmerson scored 11 to go with seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The Matadors played in front of a capacity crowd of 2,157, the largest in The Matadome since CSUN re-added the upper level seats that were lost in the 1994 earthquake.

"I thought from a perimeter standpoint we did a good job with [UC Irvine], but their size around the basket was just too much, and that's really the bottom line," said Head Coach Reggie Theus. "For the better part of the game, we played them very solid."

The Matadors got on the board quickly, and a big 3 and a layup by junior Kendall Smith put CSUN on top for the first time, 7-6, just a few minutes in. A little over a minute later, Hale-Edmerson hit a long jumper as the shot clock expired to keep the Matadors on top, chasing an out-of-bounds ball into the packed stands seconds later. Hale-Edmerson also connected on a highlight-worthy dunk over the Anteaters' 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye later in the half to energize his teammates, as well as the fans. The game stayed back-and-forth for much of the first half, but UC Irvine pulled away through the second 10 minutes of the game, gaining its largest lead right at halftime on a half-court shot at the buzzer.

After an aggressive start to the second half, the Matadors pulled within six points about four minutes in, only for the Anteaters to increase their lead to 12 again a few plays later. UC Irvine's lead would hover around that mark, only growing at about the midway point in the half. The Matadors fought back to narrow the gap in the final minutes of the game, with a Zacarry Douglas 3 and two layups by sophomore Tavrion Dawson, but it wasn't enough to make up ground.

Eleven Matadors saw court time tonight, with sophomore Micheal Warren scoring nine points, freshman Jason Richardson seven - with five at the free throw line – and Jerron Wilbut and Dawson six. Smith added five and Douglas two with five rebounds, while freshmen Kelton Conway and Mehran Nazarian saw a minute apiece at the end of the game off the bench. Senior Olalekan Ajayi helped his teammates with three rebounds.

The Matadors scored 14 second chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds and added 10 points on fast breaks. They shot 41 percent on the night, compared to 42 percent for the Anteaters, and were only 1-for-12 from beyond the arc.

Guard Luke Nelson and Ndiaye led the Anteaters, scoring 14 points apiece. Ndiaye and guard Alex Young had seven boards apiece and Nelson helped with eight assists.

With four assists in tonight's game, Hale-Edmerson moves onto yet another CSUN all-time top 10 list. He now ranks 10^th all-time with 272 career assists. He also moved up tonight to tie for fourth all-time on the games played list and grabbed a season-high three steals to move up to ninth place all-time.

The Matadors have the weekend off before hitting the road next week for games at UC Riverside on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. and Long Beach State on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. CSUN returns to The Matadome for a rematch against Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7:00 p.m, Matador Pride T-shirt Night.

(2/1/2016) MBB 012716 vs. UC Irvine

CSUN Fights Back But Drops Game to UC Irvine, 73-63

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Team Stats

Aaron Parks

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Micheal Warren

Jason Richardson

Players Mentioned

Olalekan Ajayi

Kelton Conway

Tavrion Dawson

Zacarry Douglas

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Mehran Nazarian

Aaron Parks

Jason Richardson

Kendall Smith

Micheal Warren

Jerron Wilbut