CSUN Hosts Fullerton; Travels To Davis This Week

Women's Basketball Notebook

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—A run of games against the top four teams in the Big West continues for CSUN this week as the Matadors host Cal State Fullerton and travel to UC Davis.

CSUN hosts Cal State Fullerton Thursday night. Eric Kaback's pregame show on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health is set for 6:50 p.m. Tip will be 7 p.m. Thursday is one of the Youth Team Days on the season.

Cal State Fullerton is 11-7 and fell to 3-2 in Big West play after losing to UC Davis at home (75-69) on Saturday.

Daeja Smith, who joined Channon Fluker on the Lisa Leslie Award Watch list in the preseason, leads the Titans in scoring with a 13.4 ppg average. She is sixth in the conference in scoring. Smith is sits behind Fluker in the league in rebounding at 9.2 per game. Smith leads the Big West in field goal shooting at 55.6% (100-180).

Raina Perez is eighth in the Big West in scoring (13.3) while Carolyn Gill is fourth in rebounding 7.0). Jade Vega reach the 1,000 career-point plateau with seven points against UC Davis. Cal State Fullerton leads the all-time series against CSUN 27-25. The Matadors have won 15 in a row in the series dating back to Jan. 14, 2011 when the Titans defeated CSUN 75-67 in Fullerton.

The Matadors will travel to UC Davis for the second game against the Aggies in nine days. Coverage on BigWest.tv begins at 2 p.m. After defeating CSUN last Thursday night, UC Davis defeated Cal State Fullerton 75-39 Saturday night to improve to 13-6 overall. The Aggies are now in sole possession of first place in the Big West with a 5-1 mark.

Saturday's game will matchup the top two teams in the Big West in scoring defense. UC Davis is allowing 59.9 points per game while CSUN is allowing 60.5 points per game. Morgan Bertsch continues to lead the Big West in scoring at 23.8 points per game. That average is fourth in Division I entering the week. UCD leads the all-time series 25-17.

CSUN improved to 10-10 overall, 4-2 in the Big West on Saturday when the Matadors defeated Long Beach State 51-37. The 37 points allowed by CSUN are the fifth fewest given up by the Matadors since moving to Division I in 1990. CSUN allowed 29 at Hawai'i Jan. 17 and 38 at Santa Clara Nov. 30.

The five points that Long Beach State scored in the third quarter was fourth fewest given up by CSUN in a quarter since women's basketball went to the format in 2015. It is the eighth time in the first 20 games of the 2018-19 season, a CSUN opponent has not scored more than 59 points against the Matadors. CSUN limited the Beach to 21.3% shooting for the contest (13-of-61), the fourth lowest by a Matadors' foe at the Division I level.

Channon Fluker recorded her 68th and 69th career double-doubles in the games last week. With 1,909 points, Fluker is 16 away from moving into 10th in Big West history in the category. She is 91 away from becoming the ninth Big West player to score at least 2,000 points in a career.

In addition to surpassing the 1,000-point plateau, Serafina Maulupe has broken a pair of school three-point records. Maulupe broke Ashlee Guay's school record for most three-pointers in a career with a trey against UC Davis Jan. 24. She has 171 three-pointers in her career. Guay held the previous mark with 170. With five three-point field goal attempts against UC Davis, Maulupe broke Ednisha Curry's (1997-00) previous school record in the category (492). Maulupe has taken 501 three-point field goal attempts in her Matador career.

~www.GoMatadors.com~

CSUN Hosts Fullerton; Travels To Davis This Week

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Players Mentioned

Channon Fluker

Serafina Maulupe