Matadors Host Morgan State to Conclude Non-Conference Slate

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (3-9) closes out non-conference play and the 2016 calendar year on Thursday against Morgan State on The Blacktop @ The Matadome at 7 p.m. 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 end 2016 on a winning note after dropping their fourth-straight last Wednesday at Boise State, 79-62. Falling behind 21-3 in the opening minutes of the contest, CSUN fought an uphill battle throughout the rest of the night. The Matadors went into intermission trailing 47-21 but rebounded well with a strong second half. Despite looking up at a huge deficit, the Matadors played hard down the stretch and outscored the Broncos, 41-32, in the second period. Off the bench, junior Darin Johnson led all scorers with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting including 9-of-10 shooting from the free throw line. Kendall Smith chipped in with 14 points and five rebounds.

With five points scored at Boise State, senior Aaron Parks is now over 900 points scored in his career. Sitting at 901, Parks just needs needs to average 5.8 points the rest of the way to reach 1,000 points for his career by season's end. Parks also moved into sole possession of seventh place on CSUN's career made free throws list last Wednesday. With 354 made free throws, Parks can move into sixth place, occupied by Jeff Parris (1997-2001), with four more made from the charity stripe. Also, Parks needs just one free throw to tie Josh Greene (2010-14) for seventh (472) in the Matadors' all-time attempted free throws list.

Despite being held under 70 points for just the third time this season last week, the Matadors remain one of the top offenses in the Big West Conference. CSUN leads the Big West in points per game (79.2) and field goal percentage (46.9) while the team is second in 3-point percentage (37.5). Smith is currently third in the conference in scoring (15.0) and Tavrion Dawson is seventh with 14.1 points per game. Eighth in the conference in scoring (11.9), Johnson is also the Big West leader in shooting percentage from 3-point land (55.0). The Matadors' leading distributor, Smith is second in the conference in assists per game (4.8).

In addition to his scoring, Dawson is currently the top rebounder on the team (5.7) while Rakim Lubin is not far behind with 5.4 rebounds to go along with 9.1 points. After playing the first nine games off the bench, Micheal Warren has returned to the starting lineup over the last two games and been an immediate contributor, scoring 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in the stretch. On the season, Warren is averaging 5.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game.

CSUN wraps up non-conference play on Thursday and will open up the Big West season on Wednesday, Jan. 4 at The Matadome against UC Riverside. After the opener, the Matadors hit the road for two-straight away from home beginning with a match-up at Cal State Fullerton (Jan. 7) followed by a showdown with Long Beach State (Jan. 11).

The Matadors have won all three meetings, all at home, with Morgan State over the last three seasons. CSUN has defeated the Bears by double-digits in two of the three games with the only exception coming in an 86-80 win in December 2013. Last season, the Matadors broke open a tie game at halftime in the second half to post an 88-74 victory. Warren led all scorers with 28 points to go along with nine rebounds while Smith scored 20 points in the victory last season.

A Closer Look at Morgan State
The Bears are 3-9 on the season and are looking for their first win away from home (0-6). Morgan State has dropped three-straight games after falling to Wagner, 68-66, on Dec. 10, dropping a 96-55 decision to Penn State last Wednesday and suffering a loss to Loyola Marymount, 70-49, on Monday. Competing out of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, the Bears went 9-22 last season and 6-10 during the conference play. The Bears advanced to the second round of last season's MEAC Tournament before falling to Hampton. Head coach Todd Bozeman is in his 11th season with the team and has led the Bears to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (2009, 2010) during his tenure.

Leading the MEAC in scoring, junior guard Tiwian Kendley has averaged 22.9 points per game to go along with 6.1 rebounds this season. Kendley, who has missed the last three games, became the fourth player in team history and the first since 1976 to score at least 40 points in a game as he poured in a 40-point, 10-rebound performance against Manhattan on Dec. 6. Team-leader in rebounds, junior forward Phillip Carr has grabbed 9.2 boards and has scored 17.7 points per game on the year. Senior forward Kyle Thomas has also scored in double figures for the Bears, averaging 10.7 points along with 5.0 rebounds.

Matadors Host Morgan State to Conclude Non-Conference Slate

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Darin Johnson

Rakim Lubin

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith

Micheal Warren