Thursday, November 1
Northridge, CA
7:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
89
vs
87
Cal State LA
1
2
F
Cal State LA
43
44
87
CSUN
54
35
89
Team Stats
CSULA
CSUN
FG%
.437
.507
3FG%
.344
.389
FT%
.778
.476
RB
39
43
TO
15
17
STL
9
4
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
23
FGM
11
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
21
FGM
7
3FGM
5
FTM
2
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Shae Hammond
Matadors Outlast Cal State LA in Exhibition
11/1/2018 9:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball withstood a late charge from Cal State LA to earn an 89-87 victory in an exhibition game on Thursday at The Matadome. For the second-straight game, Lamine Diane posted a double-double as he registered 23 points and 14 rebounds to go with five blocks. Off the bench, Alex Sokol knocked down five 3-pointers en route to finishing with 21 points while Terrell Gomez added 14 points and three assists.
"You always want to win. We did a lot of things well but we've got to get a lot better, obviously defensively we took our foot off the pedal," said head coach Mark Gottfried. "I liked the fact we scored 89. We've scored 88 and 89 in the two exhibition games. I think defense, foul shooting and rebounding are right now the three things for us more than anything where we've got to figure out how to get these young guys to step up in those areas.
"He's been doing that every day in practice," added Gottfried about Sokol's performance. "It's interesting, guys that work really hard, usually end up getting better, and he's one of those guys. He just works hard and he's gotten better. I thought he saved us in the first half and gave us lift by making a couple big shots. He also jumped in there and got five rebounds, which was important too. He had a really good game."
In the first half, the teams went back-and-forth in the early going as the Golden Eagles staked to a 13-9 lead before the Matadors evened the score at the first media timeout on a layup from Elijah Harkless. The tide would turn when Sokol entered the contest at the 12:59 mark as the sophomore knocked down 3-pointers on three-straight possessions to give CSUN a 26-19 edge. Diane later found Sokol in transition for an easy basket followed by a driving layup from Darius Brown II.
Sokol capped off a 17-0 run with a pair of made free throws, giving the Matadors a 34-19 lead. CSUN built its biggest lead of 18 points (40-22) after Diane scored four-straight points including a coast-to-coast slam dunk in transition. The Matadors led 44-27 with 4:48 left to play before the Golden Eagles forged an 11-4 run to trim the lead to 10 points. After Diane gave the Matadors a 13-point lead with nine seconds remaining, Cal State LA's Devin Means would score a layup at the buzzer to trim the CSUN lead to 54-43 at the break.
Shooting 61.5 percent in the first half, the Matadors would only hit 37.5 percent of their field goals following halftime as the Golden Eagles fought back into the game.
Cal State LA scored the first five points in the second half until Sokol nailed a jumper at the 17:18 mark. Diane pushed the lead to 12 points on back-to-back shots, and later Gomez knocked down a shot from long range that made it a 67-52 game. From there, the Golden Eagles went on a 10-2 run, pulling to within six points on a dunk from Ja'Sean Lewis.
Sokol hit another 3-pointer at the 6:14 mark, putting CSUN on top by double digits but the Matadors went without a field goal for nearly three minutes. Shacquille Dawkins capped off a 10-2 run with a layup to trim the CSUN lead to 83-80. Diane gave the Matadors some breathing room with a layup before the Golden Eagles cut the lead to 86-84 with 1:11 on the clock. Following a Cal State LA foul, Diane went 1-for-2 at the free throw line. Seconds later, after two missed free throws from Brown, the Golden Eagles were whistled for a costly technical foul after calling a timeout when they had none remaining. Gomez then hit two-straight at the free throw line with five seconds left to ice the game.
The Matadors finished shooting 50.7 percent from the floor including 7-of-18 from 3-point range (38.9 percent) while the Golden Eagles were held to 43.7 percent shooting for the night. CSUN went 10-for-21 at the free throw line (47.6 percent) compared to Cal State LA, which hit 14 of its 18 shots from the charity stripe (77.8 percent). The Matadors also out-rebounded the opposition 43-39.
CSUN now turns its attention to the regular season set to kick off against New Mexico on Tuesday, Nov. 6. The Matadors are hosting the Lobos for the first time in program history and their first Mountain West Conference team since the 2000-01 season. Tip-off at The Matadome is slated for 7 p.m.
"You always want to win. We did a lot of things well but we've got to get a lot better, obviously defensively we took our foot off the pedal," said head coach Mark Gottfried. "I liked the fact we scored 89. We've scored 88 and 89 in the two exhibition games. I think defense, foul shooting and rebounding are right now the three things for us more than anything where we've got to figure out how to get these young guys to step up in those areas.
"He's been doing that every day in practice," added Gottfried about Sokol's performance. "It's interesting, guys that work really hard, usually end up getting better, and he's one of those guys. He just works hard and he's gotten better. I thought he saved us in the first half and gave us lift by making a couple big shots. He also jumped in there and got five rebounds, which was important too. He had a really good game."
In the first half, the teams went back-and-forth in the early going as the Golden Eagles staked to a 13-9 lead before the Matadors evened the score at the first media timeout on a layup from Elijah Harkless. The tide would turn when Sokol entered the contest at the 12:59 mark as the sophomore knocked down 3-pointers on three-straight possessions to give CSUN a 26-19 edge. Diane later found Sokol in transition for an easy basket followed by a driving layup from Darius Brown II.
Sokol capped off a 17-0 run with a pair of made free throws, giving the Matadors a 34-19 lead. CSUN built its biggest lead of 18 points (40-22) after Diane scored four-straight points including a coast-to-coast slam dunk in transition. The Matadors led 44-27 with 4:48 left to play before the Golden Eagles forged an 11-4 run to trim the lead to 10 points. After Diane gave the Matadors a 13-point lead with nine seconds remaining, Cal State LA's Devin Means would score a layup at the buzzer to trim the CSUN lead to 54-43 at the break.
Shooting 61.5 percent in the first half, the Matadors would only hit 37.5 percent of their field goals following halftime as the Golden Eagles fought back into the game.
Cal State LA scored the first five points in the second half until Sokol nailed a jumper at the 17:18 mark. Diane pushed the lead to 12 points on back-to-back shots, and later Gomez knocked down a shot from long range that made it a 67-52 game. From there, the Golden Eagles went on a 10-2 run, pulling to within six points on a dunk from Ja'Sean Lewis.
Sokol hit another 3-pointer at the 6:14 mark, putting CSUN on top by double digits but the Matadors went without a field goal for nearly three minutes. Shacquille Dawkins capped off a 10-2 run with a layup to trim the CSUN lead to 83-80. Diane gave the Matadors some breathing room with a layup before the Golden Eagles cut the lead to 86-84 with 1:11 on the clock. Following a Cal State LA foul, Diane went 1-for-2 at the free throw line. Seconds later, after two missed free throws from Brown, the Golden Eagles were whistled for a costly technical foul after calling a timeout when they had none remaining. Gomez then hit two-straight at the free throw line with five seconds left to ice the game.
The Matadors finished shooting 50.7 percent from the floor including 7-of-18 from 3-point range (38.9 percent) while the Golden Eagles were held to 43.7 percent shooting for the night. CSUN went 10-for-21 at the free throw line (47.6 percent) compared to Cal State LA, which hit 14 of its 18 shots from the charity stripe (77.8 percent). The Matadors also out-rebounded the opposition 43-39.
CSUN now turns its attention to the regular season set to kick off against New Mexico on Tuesday, Nov. 6. The Matadors are hosting the Lobos for the first time in program history and their first Mountain West Conference team since the 2000-01 season. Tip-off at The Matadome is slated for 7 p.m.
Texas State vs. Eastern Washington
Saturday, November 20
Texas State vs. Dixie State
Friday, November 19
A Conversation With Mark Gottfried
Friday, June 19
Preseason chat with Terrell Gomez
Thursday, October 03