Matadors Return Home to Face UC Irvine

FULL PDF RELEASE

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball hosts UC Irvine Saturday evening on The Blacktop @ The Matadome at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call. Live stats and live video links can be found on the men's basketball schedule page at GoMatadors.com.

The Matadors fell to 0-2 in Big West Conference play after a hard-fought 80-70 loss at Long Beach State on Wednesday night. CSUN led by nine in the first half before the 49ers went on a late first-half run to take a nine-point lead (38-29) at the break. The Matadors would fight back and cut the deficit to 58-55 but the 49ers prevailed down the stretch. CSUN enjoyed a strong night from long range, hitting 12-of-22 from the 3-point arc (54.5).

Freshman guard Terrell Gomez scored a career-high 24 points and hit a personal-best six 3-pointers (on 10 attempts) to lead the Matadors while sophomore Lyrik Shreiner posted a team-high six rebounds along with 13 points and four assists. Matador seniors Micheal Warren and Tavrion Dawson registered 12 and 11 points respectively. CSUN also got a boost off the bench from freshman Jalon Pipkins who hit two 3-pointers and finished with six points.

Gomez's performance against the 49ers is the second 20-point game of his young career. He previously scored 20 points at California on Nov. 28. This season, Gomez is third on the team in scoring (11.5) and tops in assists per game (3.1). From long range, Gomez is shooting an exceptional 52.2 percent from the 3-point arc.

Dawson moved closer to reaching 1,000 career points with his 11 points on Wednesday. He now needs 32 more points to become the 19th player in team history to reach 1,000 points in his career. By reaching 1,000 points this season, Dawson would become just the 10th Matador in team history to reach the milestone in just three years on the court. Dawson's teammate Warren recently reached 800 career points, making him the 34th Matador in team history to accomplish the feat.

In the Big West, Dawson is sixth in the league in scoring with 15.5 points per game. Leading the conference in minutes per game (32.7), Gomez is also second in 3-point percentage. CSUN's top rebounder, Warren is eighth in the conference with 6.3 per game while he is third in free throw percentage (86.7). Also averaging 12.9 points and 2.0 assists, Warren is the only Big West player to average at least 12.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists this season.

UC Irvine leads CSUN in the all-time head-to-head series 34-24 and has won the last six meetings. Last season, the Anteaters defeated the Matadors 105-73 at The Matadome and 83-80 at Bren Events Center. The Matadors' last win over the Anteaters was an 81-75 victory at The Matadome on Feb. 22, 2014.

Up next, the Matadors will appear twice on ESPN3 next week beginning with a road contest at UC Riverside on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. CSUN concludes the week with a home test against Cal Poly at 4 p.m. The Matadors will be featured at least eight times on ESPN3 this season with the possibility of their contest against UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 24 to be selected as a wild card game.

A Closer Look at UC Irvine
The Anteaters are 1-2 in Big West play this season (6-13 overall) after falling at home to Cal State Fullerton (67-64) on Thursday evening. Last week, UCI dropped a 64-53 decision to UC Davis but earned a win over Long Beach State 86-73.

Sophomore Evan Leonard leads the team with 11.7 points per game to go with a 37.9 shooting percentage from the 3-point arc. The team's top distributor, sophomore Eyassu Worku is dishing out 3.6 assists per game while he is scoring 11.3 points. Junior Jonathan Galloway leads the Anteaters in rebounding with 7.2 per game. As a team, UCI is tops in the Big West in rebounds (41.1), offensive rebounds (12.5), defensive rebounds (28.6) and rebound margin (6.6).

Matadors Return Home to Face UC Irvine

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Terrell Gomez

Jalon Pipkins

Lyrik Shreiner

Micheal Warren