CSUN Travels to Cal Poly, Hosts Fullerton on Senior Day

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball enters the final week of Big West Conference play as they travel to face Cal Poly on Thursday at 7 p.m. before returning home to host Cal State Fullerton on Senior Night this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. An audio only broadcast will be available Thursday on the CSUN Sports Network with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call. Saturday's regular season finale will be streamed live on the CSUN Sports Network via Big West.TV with Hasan and Zinsmeister calling all the action from The Matadome. Following Saturday night's contest, the Matadors will honor senior guard Aaron Parks in a special ceremony.

In last week's conference action, the Matadors suffered a pair of tough road defeats against the top two teams in the Big West. Behind lights out shooting (61.4 percent), UC Davis defeated the Matadors, 96-85. Darin Johnson led CSUN in scoring with 24 points while Aaron Parks and Tavrion Dawson finished with 13 and 12 points respectively. Two nights later, Matadors held UC Irvine to zero field goals over the last 9:50 of the game but the Anteaters held on for an 83-80 victory. Kendall Smith poured in 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting and Johnson collected 19 points and two steals.

In the Big West standings, CSUN sits in sixth place in the conference standings, but the Matadors are just one game back of third-place Cal State Fullerton (8-6) and Hawai'i. CSUN is also a half game behind Long Beach State (8-7) for fifth place while Cal Poly (5-9) is two games behind the Matadors for sixth. The Matadors own the tiebreaker over Long Beach State and would have a tiebreaker over Cal State Fullerton with a win on Saturday. The Mustangs could catch the Matadors with two wins and a CSUN loss on Saturday, and in that scenario Cal Poly would have the tiebreaker. If the season ended today, the Matadors would take on Cal State Fullerton in the opening round of the tournament.

Saturday's regular season finale marks the final home game in the outstanding career for Parks. Currently at 1,063 career points, Parks sits in 16th place in the Matadors' all-time scoring list and just 18 away from tying Pat Bolden (1984-88) for 15th place in the record books. He is also an assist away from reaching 200 career assists and becoming the sixth player in the team's Division I era to record 1,000 points, 300 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals. In addition, Parks is third all-time in free throws made in team history (413) and fourth in free throws attempted (551).

Heading into the final two regular season games, the Matadors' offense remains one of the most potent in the Big West. CSUN leads the conference in points per game (78.7), field goal percentage (46.4) and assists per game (13.9) while the team sits in second in free throw percentage (72.5) and third in 3-point shooting percentage (35.8). The Matadors also feature four players in the Big West's Top 20 in points per game as Smith is second (16.2), Dawson is eighth (14.6), Johnson is ninth (14.3) and Parks is 16th (11.3).

Cal Poly leads the all-time series with CSUN, 52-47, after an 85-71 win at The Matadome on February 15. In the teams' first meeting, Donovan Fields scored a career-high 23 points while the Matadors' tandem of Smith and Parks scored 13 points apiece. CSUN snapped a six-game skid at Cal Poly in the series last season with a 75-71 overtime win.

Cal State Fullerton also leads the all-time head-to-head series with CSUN, 40-35, but the Matadors have won four straight. Earlier this season, CSUN handed the Titans a 70-65 loss as Micheal Warren collected 16 points. The Matadors have also won the last three meetings at The Matadome in the series.

A Closer Look at Cal Poly
Seventh in the Big West standings, the Mustangs are 10-18 this season and 5-9 in conference play. Last week, Cal Poly defeated both Long Beach State (78-71) and UC Riverside (84-77) on the road. After dropping its first five games to start conference action, the Mustangs are 5-4 and beaten four of the top six teams in the conference.

Cal Poly brings with them a balanced scoring unit, which features four players that score in double figures. Junior Victor Joseph leads the team in scoring with 12.4 points per game while sophomore Donovan Fields is averaging 11.4 points. Seniors Ridge Shipley (10.4 ppg) and Kyle Toth (10.0) have also provided the team with plenty of offense as well. As a team, the Mustangs are first in the conference in 3-pointers made per game (8.5)

A Closer Look at Cal State Fullerton
The Titans have gone 14-13 this season and 8-6 in league competition. After winning four-straight games to move up the conference standings, Fullerton dropped a 64-58 decision at Hawai'i in overtime last Saturday. Overall, the Titans have won six of their last eight games. Before traveling to CSUN, Cal State Fullerton will host UC Santa Barbara on Thursday evening.

Amassing 10 20-point performances this season, senior Tre' Coggins ranks first in the Big West Conference in points per game (17.3). Sophomore Khalil Ahmad (10.8 ppg), senior Lionheart Leslie (10.4 ppg) and freshman Jackson Rowe (10.4) are all scoring in double figures this season as well. Led by Rowe who is averaging 7.3 rebounds per game, Cal State Fullerton is second in the Big West in rebounds per game (37.6)

CSUN Travels to Cal Poly, Hosts Fullerton on Senior Day

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Darin Johnson

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith

Micheal Warren