Matadors Face Southeast Missouri State at the Cancun Challenge

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CANCUN---CSUN Men's Basketball completes the Cancun Challenge this week in Mexico. The action moves to the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in Cancun where the Matadors face Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) Tuesday aftersoon at 12 p.m. (PT). The game will be streamed live on the CBS Sports Network while an audio only broadcast will be available on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health with Ghizal Hasan on the call.

Placed in the Mayan Division, the Matadors will take on the Redhawks Tuesday and will either face Binghamton or Montana State on Wednesday. The winners of Tuesday's games will meet in a championship game while the losers will compete in a third-place contest. In the Riviera Division, Louisiana Tech faces George Mason while Evansville and Fresno State square off to close Tuesday's action. All games will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya.

Last Saturday, the Matadors fell to 0-2 in the Cancun Challenge with a 78-73 loss in overtime at George Mason. CSUN led for over 30 minutes in the contest including in the final minute of regulation but was unable to put away the Patriots. In overtime, CSUN roared back to cut a 74-68 deficit to one but George Mason would hold on down the stretch with strong free throw shooting. For the game, the Patriots shot 19-of-20 at the free throw line while the Matadors finished 8-of-13 at the charity stripe.

Senior Tavrion Dawson just missed a career high with his 26 points to go along with nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Dawson did set a career mark with 11 field goals made while his blocks and steals totals tied personal bests. Fellow senior Micheal Warren tied a career high with four 3-pointers made as he finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Freshman Terrell Gomez chipped in with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

The Matadors opened up the Cancun Challenge at Fresno State last Monday and fell 89-73 despite a season-high 18 points from Gomez.

In the early going this season, the Matadors are second in the Big West Conference in 3-point percentage (44.4), third in points per game (74.0) and fourth in free throw percentage (71.7). Dawson is seventh in the conference in points per game (17.0) while Gomez is 10th (14.3). Gomez is also fifth in three-point percentage (63.6) and eighth in assists per game (3.7).

CSUN has little experience with the Mayan Division field as the Matadors have never faced SEMO or Binghamton. The Matadors do have plenty of history with Montana State when CSUN was a member of the Big Sky Conference. CSUN leads the all-time series with the Bobcats 11-7 including holding a 3-1 record in neutral-site games. SEMO plays in the Ohio Valley Conference while Binghamton compete in the America East Conference. The Matadors are 3-6 against OVC teams while they have never played a team from the America East.

A Closer Look at Southeast Missouri State
SEMO has gone 1-2 this season after dropping Cancun Challenge contests against Louisiana Tech (96-95) and Evansville (66-50). Last season, the Redhawks finished 15-18 but 9-7 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Sophomore Denzel Mahoney leads the team with 16.3 points per game to go along with 4.7 rebounds. Also averaging in double figures, freshman Ledarrius Brewer is scoring 14.0 points and 4.7 rebounds.

A Closer Look at Binghamton
The Bearcats are 1-3 on the year after dropping their first two Cancun Challenge games to George Mason (69-57) and Evansville (66-61). Binghamton went 12-20 last season and 3-13 in America East Conference play. Junior J.C. Show has scored a team-best 16.5 points and has shot 42.9 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. Team leader in rebounds, junior Bruce Thomas has pulled down 9.0 rebounds per game to go with 15.5 points and 3.3 blocks.

A Closer Look at Montana State
The Bobcats dropped their only Cancun Challenge game to Louisiana Tech 71-58 to fall to 2-2 on the season. A season ago, Montana State went 16-16 and 11-7 in Big Sky Conference competition. Junior Tyler Hall has shouldered the load offensively thus far in 2017-18, posting 22.0 points. Right behind Hall, sophomore Harald Frey is scoring 19.3 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists. Frey is also shooting 52.2 percent from the 3-point line.

Matadors Face Southeast Missouri State at the Cancun Challenge

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Terrell Gomez

Micheal Warren