Matadors Host Titans, Visit Anteaters in ESPN3 Contests

FULL PDF RELEASE

En Español

NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (8-15, 3-6 BWC) returns home to take on the Cal State Fullerton Titans on Wednesday night on The Blacktop @ The Matadome before traveling to square off with the UC Irvine Anteaters at Bren Events Center. Both games will be broadcasted on ESPN3 and each contest will tip off at 7 p.m. Live stats will be available on GoMatadors.com and live audio will be available for each game on the CSUN Sports Network with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.

In last week's Big West action, the Matadors split their two road contests. CSUN avenged a January loss to UC Riverside as the Matadors earned a hard-fought 73-71 win on Wednesday. Three nights later, CSUN and Long Beach State battled in a back-and-forth game with eight lead changes but the 49ers held off the Matadors in an 81-76 decision.

Sophomore guard Micheal Warren finished with a game-high 25 points against UCR while Tre Hale-Edmerson tallied 13 points and five assists. Warren hit the game-winning driving layup with 2:58 remaining to help lead CSUN. The Matador defense held the Highlanders scoreless over their final five possessions to secure the win.

Against LBSU, four Matadors scored in double figures including Warren (14), Kendall Smith (14), Tavrion Dawson (13) and Aaron Parks (10). Both teams enjoyed a lead in the second half and the game was tied 68-68 with 3:45 remaining. However, the 49ers would hit key free throws down the stretch to pull off the five-point victory.

With two more games under his belt, Hale-Edmerson continues to move up the school's all-time Top 10 in several categories. The senior forward moved into a first-place tie with Stephan Hicks for the most games started at CSUN (117) and he tied both Hicks and Stephen Maxwell for the second-most games played (122). He also climbed up to sixth place on both the all-time rebounds (673) and minutes played lists (3,301) in school history. With 132 steals and 280 assists in his CSUN career, he is only two steals away from eighth place on the all-time steal list and one assist shy of moving up to ninth in the school's career assists list as well.

CSUN looks for the season sweep against Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday after defeating the Titans in January on the road, 85-75, behind Smith's 30 points. The Matadors are 15-17 all-time at The Matadome against the Titans but have won the last two meetings. In the all-time season series, Fullerton leads 40-33. UC Irvine defeated CSUN on January 27, 73-63, to move its all-time record to 31-24 against the Matadors. Parks led the Matadors in scoring with 17 points in defeat. CSUN is 8-18 at UC Irvine in the all-time series and looks to snap a four-game skid.

A Closer Look at Cal State Fullerton
The Titans split their two conference games last week to push their overall record to 9-13 and Big West mark to 2-7. Fullerton defeated UC Davis, 61-57, and fell at UC Santa Barbara, 81-68, last week. On the road, the Titans are 4-6 on the season and 1-3 against Big West competition.

Junior Tre Coggins is third in the Big West Conference in points per game with 17.0 and scored 41 against CSUN in the teams' first meeting earlier this season. Freshman guard Khalil Ahmad is scoring 15.3 points per game to go along with 4.5 rebounds and senior Malcolm Brooks is shooting 41.8 percent from beyond the arc while posting 12.2 points.

A Closer Look at UC Irvine
UCI is 18-6 on the season including going 8-1 at home. In conference play, the Anteaters hold a 7-1 record after defeating Cal Poly last Wednesday in overtime, 78-72. Before hosting the Matadors on Saturday, the Anteaters will travel to face the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors on Thursday evening.

Junior guard Luke Nelson leads the Anteaters in scoring with 13.0 points to go along with 3.8 assists per game. Junior Mamadou Ndiaye is averaging 12.3 points per game and shooting 66.0 percent from the field. Ndiaye is also grabbing 7.0 rebounds a contest and leading the conference with 61 blocks on the season. The duo of Ndiaye and Nelson combined to score 28 against CSUN in January.

Matadors Host Titans, Visit Anteaters in ESPN3 Contests

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Tre Hale-Edmerson

Stephan Hicks

Stephen Maxwell

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith

Micheal Warren