Matadors Fall at Stanford, 96-69

Tuesday, November 15

Stanford, CA

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

1-2

Stanford

2-0

CSUN

STANFORD

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

Matadors Fall at Stanford, 96-69

11/15/2016 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

STANFORD, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (1-2) dropped a 96-69 decision to Stanford on Tuesday evening at Maples Pavilion. Kendall Smith led CSUN in scoring with 17 points to go along with six rebounds. Jerron Wilbut added 10 points off the bench on 4-of-7 shooting and the trio of Darin Johnson, Dylan Johns and Jason Richardson all had nine.

"A lot of times when things aren't going well offensively, sometimes your defense suffers and that's a mark of a team that's learning to become a good team. We are very young in the sense of our maturity as a team but we have a lot of talent and a lot of depth. We are athletic but we just have to learn to play the game the right way."

On a night where the Matadors shot 39.0 percent from the field, CSUN was unable to overcoming hot shooting from Stanford (50.0 percent) and 20 turnovers on the night.

The Matadors came out strong in the early moments of the contest. Baskets from Aaron Parks and Johnson gave CSUN a 5-0 lead out of the gate. Stanford would respond, however, outscoring the Matadors 10-2 to take a lead they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Following a jumper from Rakim Lubin, the Matadors were held to just two field goals over a 7:02 span as Stanford increased its advantage to double digits. A slam dunk from Reid Travis capped off a 19-5 run that put the Cardinal ahead 29-14.

Playing an hour away from his hometown of Antioch, CA, Smith kept CSUN within striking distance, scoring 13 of his 17 points in the first half. He also earned his way to foul line eight times, converting on six attempts. Trailing by as many as 18 points in the first period, the Matadors closed the gap in the final minutes as Smith knocked down a 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer to bring CSUN to within 47-34.

After intermission, Stanford capitalized on three-straight CSUN turnovers to post an 8-0 run to increase its lead to 55-34.

On the back of 61.3 percent shooting in the second half including seven 3-pointers, the Cardinal pushed their advantage to 31 with 8:22 left in the game.

The Matadors moved to within 25 points on two occasions down the stretch but would not get any closer as the Cardinal posted the 96-69 victory. For the Cardinal, Travis led the team in scoring with 19 points.

Smith has led the Matadors in scoring twice in three games this season as he has averaged a team-best 18.3 points per game. Going back to last season, Smith has scored in double figures in five-straight and in 10 of the last 11 Matador contests.

CSUN returns home for a non-conference game against Northern Illinois at The Matadome on Saturday. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m.