Matadors' Rally Falls Short at UC Irvine

Wednesday, February 7

Irvine, CA

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

5-19, 2-8

UC Irvine

12-14, 7-3

CSUN

UC Irvine

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

Matadors' Rally Falls Short at UC Irvine

2/7/2018 9:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

IRVINE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball dropped a 77-56 decision at UC Irvine on Wednesday evening at the Bren Events Center. Tavrion Dawson led the Matadors with 18 points to go with six rebounds and three steals. Lyrik Shreiner collected his second double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds while Terrell Gomez chipped in with 11 points. The Matadors trimmed an 18-point second-half deficit to 10 with six minutes to play but the Anteaters took control down the stretch to hand CSUN its fifth-straight loss.

"The positives are that we cut it to eight at halftime and cut it to nine in the second half," said head coach Reggie Theus. "It's hard to win a game when you get beat by 12 rebounds, and you give up 46 points in the paint to your 14. You have to play almost flawless basketball to win like that. But I thought our effort was great. The guys battled. Lyrik did a great job playing a four and playing a five, and doing a little bit of everything tonight."

CSUN finished shooting 34.5 percent from the floor including 29.4 percent (5-for-17) from beyond the 3-point arc. The Anteaters countered with a 50.8 shooting percentage. UCI also out-rebounded CSUN 41-29, and enjoyed a 17-10 advantage in second chance points.

The first half would prove to be a defensive struggle with field goals hard to come by. CSUN shot just 25.8 percent from the field but held the Anteaters to 37.0 percent shooting in the period. The Matadors scored the first four points, however it took them over three minutes to do so. In contrast, the Anteaters were held scoreless through the first media timeout as they missed their first eight shots.

Tommy Rutherford tipped in the Anteaters' first shot at the 15:10 mark but the Matadors answered back on their next possession with a Micheal Warren layup. CSUN took a 6-3 lead on Warren's layup but the Matadors went cold from the field for a key nine-minute stretch after that.

The Matadors would make 1-of-11 shots during the stretch, allowing the Anteaters' offense to get going. UCI scored 13-straight points capped off by a jumper from Elston Jones to build a 22-8 lead. Gomez ended the slide with a jumper at the 5:05 mark, but UCI scored four more points, which wrapped up a 23-4 run over a 9:21 span.

As much as CSUN struggled from the field in the half, the team would turn things around near the end of the half. After CSUN hit three-straight free throws, Warren nailed a 3-pointer from the corner followed by driving layup from Shreiner that capped an 8-0 run. Gomez hit a late tear drop layup to bring CSUN to within 28-20 at the half.

In the early moments of the second half, the Matadors trimmed the deficit to 32-23 on a 3-pointer from Shreiner but the Anteaters would again go on a run to build their lead back to a sizable margin. A part of a 7-0 run, Evan Leonard scored five consecutive points and Rutherford scored a layup to push the lead to 39-23.

Despite their struggles from the field, the Matadors kept on battling. Scoring 14 second-half points, Dawson tallied five-straight points to cut the UCI lead to 11 points at the 15:44 mark. The Anteaters answered back with another 7-0 run to push the lead to 16 points again but the Matadors would respond.

Trailing 55-37 with 10:01 to play, the Matadors made a push. Dawson drained a jumper and Warren sunk a 3-pointer to make it a 13-point game. Moments later, UCI took a 60-44 lead on a Brad Greene basket, but Gomez answered with a trey. Jalon Pipkins later scored down low off a feed from Warren to trim the deficit to 60-49. After Gomez picked up a steal, Dawson was fouled driving to the basket. Dawson hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line to make it a 60-50 game with 6:08 left to go.

As they did throughout the game, the Anteaters responded swiftly. Rutherford scored consecutive shots to quickly push the lead to 14 points. Following back-to-back CSUN turnovers, Eyassu Worku recorded seven-straight points to cap an 11-0 run that put the game out of reach.

With a block on the night, Dawson entered the Matadors' all-time career blocks list, tying Devonte Elliott (2014-15) with 44 blocks. Dawson, who is currently 15th in CSUN history in points scored, surpassed 1,100 points with his 18 points on Wednesday. He currently has 1,108 career points, which are 51 away from 13th place, occupied by Calvin Chitwood (2004-08) and George Robnett (1970-74).

For the Anteaters, Rutherford posted 18 points and 10 rebounds while Leonard finished with 15 points.

The Matadors conclude a three-game road trip at Hawai'i on Saturday evening. Tip off is slated for 9 p.m. (PT) from Honolulu.