CSUN Continues Non-Conference Play with Bethesda

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (3-7) returns to action on Friday evening for a non-conference meeting with Bethesda at 7 p.m. on The Blacktop @ The Matadome. The game will be streamed live on the CSUN Sports Network through Big West.TV with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.

The Matadors look to shake off a heartbreaking 69-68 loss to Loyola Marymount last Saturday. Suffering its first home loss of the season, CSUN fell on a put-back layup by the Lions' Stefan Jovanovic with nine seconds remaining. The Matadors erased a seven-point deficit to take a three-point lead with over two minutes to play but LMU scored the final four points of the game to earn the win. Kendall Smith scored 16 points and dished out seven assists in defeat while Darin Johnson poured in 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor. Tavrion Dawson and Aaron Parks each had 11 points while Rakim Lubin finished with six points and five rebounds in 22 minutes.

The Matadors head into the weekend tops in the Big West in points per game (79.3), field goal percentage (47.2) and free throw percentage (73.6) this season while the team has three players in the Top 10 in scoring in the conference. Team leader in points, Smith is fourth in the Big West in points per game (14.6) while Dawson is fifth (14.4) and Parks is ninth (12.6). Johnson is just outside the conference's Top 10 as he is in 12th place with 12.1 points.

As a team, the Matadors are shooting 36.6 percent from 3-point land this season, good for third-best in the Big West. Johnson has been the team's most consistent shooter from beyond the arc, shooting 56.3 percent for the season. Dawson is second on the team in 3-point shooting percentage with 43.8 while Smith is knocking down 34.3 percent of his shots from long range. Last season, CSUN shot 29.6 percent from downtown.

Making a move up CSUN's all-time career records lists, Parks is closing in on 900 points for his career as he is currently sitting on 896. Parks is also expected to crack 1,000 points for his career this season. Averaging 9.7 points over his career, Parks needs to only average 5.5 points the rest of the way to reach 1,000 points by the end of the campaign. Parks is seventh all-time in school history in free throws made with 351 and needs seven more to climb into sixth place. He is also tied with Brian Heinle (1997-2001) for eighth all-time in free throws attempted with 465.

Following Friday's game, the Matadors will travel to Boise State on Wednesday, Dec. 21 before concluding non-conference play against Morgan State at The Matadome on Dec. 29. CSUN opens up Big West play on Wednesday, Jan. 4 versus UC Riverside at home.

CSUN and Bethesda have faced off in each of the last two seasons with the Matadors posting victories in each contest. The Matadors earned a 79-49 win over the Flames last season as Smith finished with 22 points and Dawson posted a double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds. Two seasons ago, CSUN defeated Bethesda in the first ever meeting between the two teams by the final of 89-61.

A Closer Look at Bethesda
Playing out of the National Christian College Athletic Association, Bethesda University is 5-8 overall and 2-0 this season in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. The Flames snapped a seven-game skid on Monday with an 86-83 win at Antelope Valley. Last season, Bethesda went 6-18 overall and 5-3 in conference play. Bethesda has already competed against other Division I teams this season including Southern Utah and Cal Poly. On Thursday, Bethesda will travel to meet CSU Bakersfield.

Jarrell Tate has led the team in points (15.5) and in assists (2.7) while he has been second in rebounding (4.5). On Monday, Tate scored a game-high 27 points off the bench to help Bethesda defeat Antelope Valley. Alex Smith has scored 12.5 points for Bethesda to go along with 4.0 rebounds while Buddha Boyd has posted a team-leading 4.6 rebounds as well as 10.3 points. As a team, Bethesda has averaged 82.3 points per game. Overall stats available for Bethesda are through 11 of the team's 13 games this season.

CSUN Continues Non-Conference Play with Bethesda

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Darin Johnson

Rakim Lubin

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith