CSUN Never Trails in Win Over San Diego Christian

Wednesday, December 27

Northridge, CA

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

2-11

San Diego Christian

2-6

San Diego Christian

CSUN

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

CSUN Never Trails in Win Over San Diego Christian

12/27/2017 9:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball posted a wire-to-wire victory over San Diego Christian, 93-63, on Wednesday evening at The Matadome. Tavrion Dawson scored a career-high 33 points on 14-of-22 shooting to go with five rebounds and three assists while Micheal Warren tallied a season-high 22 points and registered seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and six 3-pointers (on eight attempts). Terrell Gomez finished with 14 points and a career-high seven assists. The Matadors led by as many as 39 points on the night as CSUN recorded its largest win in three seasons en route to snapping an 11-game losing streak.

With his career-high night, Dawson becomes the first Matador to score at least 33 points in a game since Josh Greene tallied 37 against Hawai'i on March 7, 2013. Dawson's 14 field goals are also a career best. The senior also surpassed 900 career points on the night, becoming the 25th Matador in team history to reach the milestone. Dawson currently sits at 925 career points.

"Obviously it's really great to get back on the winning side of the column. This is a game we're supposed to win," said head coach Reggie Theus. "The emphasis was to get the ball inside and TD [Dawson] delivered what I thought he would do. Mikey [Warren] played really well, he was 6-for-8 from the 3-point line.

"I thought the intensity level was great in the first half," continued Theus. "It's hard to keep that level of intensity the whole game when you are up 20-plus points. Needless to say, we're going to have to play a lot of better and a lot more together and stronger. A good overall night for the team and a little bit of a confidence builder but it's not about tonight. It's about getting to another place where you can play better basketball."

The Matadors posted season highs across the board on Wednesday including points (93), field goals made (38), field goal percentage (59.4), 3-point field goals made (13), 3-point field goal percentage (61.9), assists (24) and steals (9). CSUN held the Hawks to 43.1 percent shooting for the night, and the team recorded a 33-23 edge in rebounding. The Matadors also scored 44 points in the paint compared to 28 for San Diego Christian.

CSUN came out quickly in the early going, scoring the game's first six points. Dawson scored his first points at the 15:11 mark and he later converted on a 3-point play to push the lead to 17-5. Warren extended the lead to 15 points with a 3-pointer off a feed from Zeno Lake.

The first half would belong to Dawson who tallied 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting. With the lead at 29-15, Dawson scored eight-straight Matador points as his layup at the 5:28 mark pushed the lead to 37-17.

After another Dawson jumper hit the bottom of the net, Carl Brown scored the Matadors' last five points of the half to push the lead to 51-23 at intermission.

In the early moments of the second half, Dawson connected on an old-fashioned 3-point play to extend the Matador advantage to 30 points (54-24). CSUN found its stroke from beyond the 3-point arc in the second half, hitting 8-of-12 to stay in front comfortably.

Warren hit 5-of-6 from the 3-point line in the period including nailing his first five 3-pointers as he finished with 17 second-half points.

Following a CSUN 10-2 run in the second half, the Matadors took a 39-point lead at 84-45 with 7:55 left to play. Dawson scored his final bucket at the 3:48 mark of the contest to give the Matadors a big 90-54 lead. In the final minutes, Matador reserves got into the act and contributed on the offensive end including Jonathan Guevara who hit a jumper and Alex Sokol who tallied his first career point on a free throw with 1:18 on the clock.

Warren's six 3-pointers are a new career high, eclipsing his previous best of four that he recorded on four separate occasions. Gomez also hit a season-high four 3-pointers. Lyrik Shreiner finished with a season-best four assists to go with six points, three rebounds and two steals.

The Matadors conclude their non-conference schedule on Saturday against Morgan State with tip off slated for 7 p.m. The game will be the second of a CSUN Basketball Doubleheader, following CSUN Women's Basketball taking on Seattle University at 4 p.m.