Matadors Beat Morgan State Behind Balanced Attack

Saturday, December 30

Northridge, CA

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

3-11

Morgan State

4-9

Morgan State

CSUN

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

Matadors Beat Morgan State Behind Balanced Attack

12/30/2017 9:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---Four Matadors (3-11) scored in double figures as CSUN Men's Basketball defeated Morgan State 79-69 on Saturday evening at The Matadome. Tavrion Dawson led the way with 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists while Reggie Theus Jr. posted a career-high 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. Micheal Warren tallied 15 points and five rebounds and Lyrik Shreiner poured in 10 points and a team-best five assists. The Matadors led by as many as 18 points and never trailed in the second half en route to notching their first Division I victory of the season.

"It's a much needed win," said head coach Reggie Theus. "Winning is contagious. We had good game the other night [against San Diego Christian] and we played even better tonight. I thought we did a lot of really good things defensively, and our guys attacked offensively. Lyrik [Shreiner], Mikey [Warren] and Jonathan [Guevara] did a nice job on their best player [Tiwian Kendley]. Even though he had 29 points, they made it tough for him.

"I thought it was a fantastic team win because it took everybody to play well, and that's what it's going to take for our team," continued Theus. "I'm proud of the guys because we've struggled and at no point have I thought from a character standpoint that they've let down. This is when you reap the benefits of staying together as a team."

CSUN shot an even 50.0 percent from the field including 44.4 percent from the 3-point arc (8-of-18) while the Bears finished 36.9 percent from the floor and just 27.3 percent (3-for-11) from downtown. Morgan State cruised to a 46-30 advantage in rebounding for the night and posted 23 offensive rebounds to the Matadors' eight, but CSUN held a 12-10 lead in second chance points.

After a slow start where Morgan State scored the game's first six points, the Matadors roared back with a 13-3 run. Theus Jr. scored seven early points in the run including an old-fashioned 3-point play at the 14:47 mark. CSUN would be far from done as another 10-0 run over a 3:23 span pushed the lead to 25-12.

The Bears were able to cut the deficit to nine after four-straight points but the Matadors kept the visitors at bay with strong outside shooting. Terrell Gomez knocked down a long 3-pointer and Warren connected with a trey of his own from the corner to push the lead to 33-20. Theus Jr. nailed another 3-pointer that extended the Matador lead to their biggest of the game at 18 (40-22) with just over a minute to play.

CSUN hit 5-of-11 from the 3-point arc in the first half and picked up 12 points from Theus Jr. to lead 40-25 at the half. On the defensive side, the Matadors held the Bears to 25.6 percent shooting.

Following intermission, Theus Jr. scored the Matadors' first four points and Dawson later hit a jumper to keep CSUN ahead 46-35. The Matadors would go on a 6-0 run to extend to a 17-point lead (52-35).

The Bears' Tiwian Kendley kept his team in the game with an outstanding second half. Kendley scored 22 of his game-high 29 points in the period as he brought the Bears within 52-44 after four-straight points.

Dawson would counter Kendley's scoring output with 14 points in the second half to keep the Matadors ahead by double-digits down the stretch. Dawson pushed the lead back to 13 on a 3-point play and he later found Warren on a circus 3-point shot from the corner that made it a 67-51 game. With just under five minutes to play, Dawson sunk a 3-pointer from the top of the arc for his final shot of the night.

Off the bench, Jonathan Guevara scored six points late in the period including a mid-range jumper that gave the Matadors a 74-57 edge. Kendley scored 13 his team's final 15 points but the Matadors held off the Bears in the closing minutes for the 79-69 victory.

With his new career high in scoring, Theus Jr. has averaged 9.8 points per game over the last five contests. Coming into the season with one career double figure scoring game, Theus Jr. has scored in double figures in two of the last three games.

The Matadors now set their sights toward Big West Conference play next week. CSUN hosts Hawai'i on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. to kick off the conference season. The game will be aired live on ESPN3 with an audio only broadcast available on the CSUN Sports Network.