Matadors Unable to Cool Off Hot Shooting Cal Poly in 85-71 Loss

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (11-14, 7-5 BWC) fell to Cal Poly (8-17, 3-8 BWC), 85-71, on Wednesday evening at The Matadome. Both Kendall Smith and Aaron Parks finished with a team-high 18 points while Tavrion Dawson posted 13 points and eight rebounds. Darin Johnson also scored in double figures, finishing with 12 points. Suffering from a poor night from the field, the Matadors could not overcome a hot shooting Cal Poly team, led by Donovan Fields who scored a game-high 23 points.

"I like to always come up with something positive to say, even in a loss, and I can't come up with one thing tonight," said head coach Reggie Theus. "I can talk about the effort late in the second half but that doesn't matter. Sometimes, its difficult [when] you have four-straight home games, you get a little stale sometimes. I get how that works, but that's when you have to have toughness. That's when you have to have leadership. You have to understand what's at stake. You have grind it out. You have to come more prepared when you have the success then less prepared."

Leading by as many as 30 points in the game, Cal Poly built a comfortable double-digit lead in the first half thanks to 60.7 percent shooting from the field including 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. In contrast, the Matadors shot just 28.6 percent in the opening stanza and went 0-of-5 from downtown. CSUN responded in the second half, shooting at a 51.5 percent clip but the Matadors could overcome the Mustangs lights out play on the offensive end. Finishing 54.5 percent from the field, the Mustangs had five players score in double figures.

Never holding a lead on the night, CSUN evened the game at 2-2 in the opening minute of the game. However, Cal Poly would take it from there as it never allowed the Matadors to draw even for the remainder of the contest.

After CSUN pulled to within 8-6, Cal Poly engineered a 13-1 run to take a 21-7 lead at the 11:34 mark of the half. The Matadors clawed back to within a 23-14 after back-to-back jumpers from Smith and Parks, but a Cal Poly 15-6 spurt extended the lead to 41-21.

Following a layup from Fields with less than a minute to play, the Mustangs took a 45-22 lead into intermission.

The Mustangs continued their exceptional play at the offensive end in the second half, eventually building a 67-37 lead after a dunk by Hank Hollingsworth.

Looking up at their biggest deficit of the night, the Matadors responded down the stretch and slowly began to chip away at the huge Cal Poly lead. Creating turnovers on the defensive end, CSUN completed a 13-3 run, capped off a dunk by Johnson to trim the deficit to 70-50. Playing with tenacity on both sides of the court, the Matadors managed to pull to within 14 points late in the half.

However, Cal Poly would hold off the Matadors as Fields scored 14 of his career-high 23 points in the second period. Fields also shot an impressive 10-of-16 from the field and he finished with six rebounds.

With his 13 points on the night, Dawson extended his double-digit scoring streak to 10 games. Although he was unable to record another double-double, Dawson still managed to collect eight rebounds. In Big West play, Dawson has grabbed six or more rebounds in all but one game.

Registering his highest point total since Nov. 25, Parks also went 7-of-9 from the free throw line against the Mustangs. With his seven converted free throws, Parks climbed into fourth place in the Matadors' all-time made free throws list with 401. The Matador senior would move into a third-place tie with Josh Greene (2010-14) with 10 more made free throws this season.

CSUN will return to the court next Thursday (Feb. 23) for a road contest at UC Davis. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m.

Matadors Unable to Cool Off Hot Shooting Cal Poly in 85-71 Loss

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Team Stats

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith

Tavrion Dawson

Darin Johnson

Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Darin Johnson

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith