Matadors Lose to Gauchos, 63-78

PDF Box Score

En Español

Northridge, CA - The CSUN Matadors (10-18, 5-9 BWC) lost to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (14-12, 8-5 BWC), 78-63, on Thursday night on the Blacktop @ The Matadome. The Matadors were trailing by as much as 38 at one point, but fought back in the final minutes to narrow the margin.

Junior Aaron Parks scored 18 points for the Matadors and sophomore Tavrion Dawson scored 14. Parks, Tre Hale-Edmerson and Zacarry Douglas each helped with six rebounds.

"In a college season, there's probably one or two times that you play games and you know that it's not a representation of who you are," said Head Coach Reggie Theus. "We had been playing probably our best stretch of basketball in the last few weeks and sometimes you just can't figure it out."

The Matadors had their slowest first half of the season with a season-low 19 points to the Gauchos' 44. Parks went 4-for-4 at the free throw line to lead the team with six points in the first half although the Matadors struggled shooting just 21 percent.

The second half saw CSUN pick up the pace, and a jumper by Parks followed by two baskets from Dawson got the Matadors' momentum moving, before the Gauchos widened their lead to 35 at the midway point. Highlights of the latter part of the half included an alley-oop dunk from sophomore Micheal Warren to Hale-Edmerson with around five minutes to play and a hard-fought steal and layup by Parks a minute later.

CSUN fought through the final second, narrowing the gap to 15 in the last minute of the game. Freshmen Kelton Conway and Mehran Nazarian came in for the Matadors and deserve part of the credit for energizing their teammates through the last buzzer. Nazarian scored a basket and Conway two free throws.

CSUN rebounded to shoot 40 percent in the second half and ended up beating the Gauchos at the free throw line. CSUN shot 19-for-28 at the charity stripe to UCSB's 7-for-12. The Matadors also managed 22 points off of turnovers, 26 points in the paint and 16 points from the bench.

During Thursday's game, Hale-Edmerson moved into sole possession of eighth place on CSUN's all-time assists list and up a spot to eighth place on CSUN's all-time steals list. He also had two blocks on a night where fans received foam hands celebrating his reigning CSUN blocks record.

For the Gauchos, guard Gabe Vincent scored 20 points and forward Mitch Brewe almost notched a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.

The Matadors fly to Honolulu this weekend to take on Hawai'i on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. PT. They then return home to The Matadome for Senior Night and their last game of the season on Saturday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m.

Matadors Lose to Gauchos, 63-78

Next Event

Team Stats

Aaron Parks

Tavrion Dawson

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Zacarry Douglas

Players Mentioned

Kelton Conway

Tavrion Dawson

Zacarry Douglas

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Mehran Nazarian

Aaron Parks

Micheal Warren