Matadors Continue Road Schedule at Cal Tuesday

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NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball continues a seven-game road trip on Tuesday. The Matadors' next stop is up north where CSUN will take on California at 8 p.m. The game will be aired on the Pac-12 Network while an audio only broadcast will be available on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.

CSUN wrapped up the Cancun Challenge last week with a pair of games in Mexico. The Matadors dropped a 74-59 decision to Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) on Tuesday before falling to Binghamton 70-65 a day later.

Leading for most of the first half, the Matadors fell victim to a SEMO 20-6 run to end the period, which gave the Redhawks a 39-28 lead. SEMO led by as many as 22 points before settling for the 15-point victory. Lyrik Shreiner continued his hot start to the year with 14 points, five rebounds and two steals while Micheal Warren just missed a double-double as he posted 14 points and nine rebounds.

The Matadors took control early against the Bearcats, building as big a lead as 11 points in the first half. CSUN led for the early minutes of the second half until a Binghamton 15-1 rally gave the Bearcats a nine-point lead. The Matadors fought back to cut the deficit to one but were unable to take the lead down the stretch. Tavrion Dawson posted 23 points, five rebounds and two steals to lead CSUN. Shreiner added 14 points and Warren chipped in with 12.

In the four Cancun Challenge games, Dawson averaged a team-high 15.8 points per game to go along with 5.3 assists to earn Mayan Division all-tournament team honors. Warren had a strong tournament as well, scoring 13.5 points with 7.0 rebounds while Shreiner scored 12.5 points. Zeno Lake pulled down 7.0 rebounds per game in the four contests.

The Matadors head into the week currently seventh in the nation in fewest turnovers with 10.0 while the team is second in the Big West in 3-point percentage (40.7). Dawson is seventh in the conference in points per game (15.4) and Warren is tied for 10th (13.4). Also in the Big West Top 10, Gomez is second in 3-point percentage (58.8) and Lake is third in offensive rebounds (3.0) and fifth in overall rebounds (7.4).

CSUN is 0-6 all time against Cal in program history, however the Golden Bears' win during the 1994-95 season was later forfeited. The Matadors have played five times in Berkeley with their last game taking place in Nov. 2010 as Cal prevailed 80-63. CSUN seeks its first win over a Pac-12 team since winning in Utah, 76-71, in Dec. 2012.

A Closer Look at California
The Golden Bears are 2-4 this season and have dropped their last three games. Last week, Cal fell to Wichita State (92-89), VCU (83-69) and a Division II team in Chaminade (96-72) at the Maui Invitational. Already this season, the Bears are 1-1 against the Big West Conference as they lost to UC Riverside (74-66) but beat Cal Poly (85-82). A season ago, Cal went 21-13 and advanced to the National Invitational Tournament.

Junior Don Coleman leads the team in scoring with 24.0 points per game as he is shooting 41.4 percent from above the 3-point arc. Freshman Justice Sueing is also averaging in double figures (14.7 points) while senior Marcus Lee is grabbing a team-high 9.2 rebounds to go with 10.5 points.

Matadors Continue Road Schedule at Cal Tuesday

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Zeno Lake

Lyrik Shreiner

Micheal Warren