Men's Basketball Drops Season Opener at Oregon State

CORVALLIS, Ore.---CSUN Men's Basketball (0-1) dropped its season opener at Oregon State 87-67 on Tuesday evening at Gill Coliseum. Junior Terrell Gomez led all Matadors in scoring with 19 points while sophomore Elijah Harkless added a career-high 15 points with five rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Darius Brown II chipped in with 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

The Beavers shot 46.0 percent from the field but earned their way to the free throw line with regularity, shooting 22-of-31 for the night (71.0 percent). CSUN finished 38.3 percent from the floor and hit 8-of-26 from 3-point range (30.8 percent). The Matadors also made 13-of-18 at the charity stripe (72.2 percent). Oregon State out-rebounded CSUN 45-35.

FIRST HALF
The Matadors showed their shooting ability from long range at the outset of the game, hitting three of their first four 3-pointers to stake to a 9-6 lead at the 16:49 mark. Gomez would hit another trey moments later and Harkless followed with a driving layup to keep the game even at 14-14.

The half though would be decided over the next four minutes when the Beavers forged an 11-0 run to build a 25-14 advantage. Michael Ou finally ended the drought with a layup off a pass from Harkless but the Matadors would be trailing the rest of the period by double digits. Tres Tinkle led the way for the Beavers in the half, scoring 15 points as the Beavers took a 45-31 lead into the break.

SECOND HALF
The Matadors scored the first six points of the second half behind shots from Festus Ndumanya and Lance Coleman II to quickly trim the deficit to eight. The Beavers again answered with a 6-0 outburst that pushed the lead back to 14 points (54-40) behind strong play on the inside. A Kylor Kelly dunk made it a 61-49 game at the 11:41 mark of the half. Still, the Matadors showed fight throughout and continued to chip away at the lead. Gomez scored eight-straight points to suddenly bring CSUN within 63-57 at the midway mark of the second half.

However, six points would be the closest the Matadors would get as the Beavers scored the next eight points, capped by a layup from Tinkle. The Matadors went without a field goal for six-plus minutes, giving the Beavers a chance to continue to stretch their lead. Harkless ended the streak with a field goal but by that time the Matadors looked up at a 19-point deficit. Six of the final eight points were scored by Harkless as Oregon State maintained a sizeable lead in the closing moments.

GAME NOTES
Coleman II started his first career game with the Matadors, finishing with eight points and five rebounds in 31 minutes. Freshmen Brendan Harrick and Ndumanya played in their first collegiate game and each made a field goal.

For the Beavers, four players finished in double figures, led by Tinkle who had a game-high 25 points to go with 10 rebounds.

ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"Our guys played hard. Obviously we're missing some key guys and we have to figure out a way to fill those gaps. We have to get some more scoring inside, right now we're getting zero. We've got to do a better job of going inside and seeing if we can make a basket. But we'll get better and there's a lot of things we can improve on."

UP NEXT
CSUN completes a short two-game road trip on Saturday night against New Mexico. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. (PST). Ghizal Hasan will call the action in an audio broadcast on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health.

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Team Stats

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Darius Brown II

Lance Coleman II

Players Mentioned

Darius Brown II

Lance Coleman II

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Brendan Harrick

Festus Ndumanya

Michael Ou