CSUN Hosts North Dakota State Wednesday at The Matadome

FULL GAME NOTES

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball (2-8) returns to action Wednesday when it hosts North Dakota State at The Matadome at 7 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister will call the action on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health through BigWest.TV.

Prior to the game, the second CSUN FanFest presented by Northridge Toyota will take place at 5:30 p.m on the west patio of The Matadome. A live DJ will be on hand and students can get free pizza courtesy of CSUN Dining. Fans can enter to win $500 by taking a mid-court shot during the men's basketball game. At the fest, fans can also take part in MataPong, Corn-hole, Dual Basketball while True Barbershop will provide free haircuts.

After playing eight of their first 10 games away from The Matadome, the Matadors will four of their final six non-conference games at home. CSUN is set to host San Francisco State on Dec. 22, Morgan State on Dec. 31 and Saint Katherine on Jan. 4 during the non-league season while the Matadors' final two road games are against Pacific this Sunday, Dec. 15 and Boise State on Dec. 28.

CSUN played in a pair of nail biters in Portland this past week, earning a split. Last Wednesday, the Matadors battled the Portland Pilots in a back-and-forth affair featuring 10 lead changes and 10 ties before prevailing 71-64. The win over Portland was the Matadors' first road win of the season as CSUN held Portland to just 32.8 percent shooting from the field. Two days later, the Matadors got off to a fast start against Portland State but the Vikings fought back to even the game at the half. PSU would take control late in the second half and held off a late CSUN charge to prevail 73-67.

Junior Terrell Gomez again led the way for the Matadors, scoring 28 points in the win against Portland and registering 21 at Portland State. Gomez knocked down seven 3-pointers over the two games and went 10-for-12 at the free throw line. Freshman Brendan Harrick added 15 points against Portland and scored a career-high 18 against PSU. Sophomore Darius Brown II chipped in with 12 points and six assists at Portland State.

With two more outstanding performances last week, Gomez has moved into elite territory in Matador history. Gomez is now 10th in school history with 1,229 career points after jumping head of Cliff Higgins (1981-84) and Tavrion Dawson (2015-18). Gomez can take over sole possession of ninth place, occupied by Jeff Parris (1997-01), with 33 more points. Elsewhere in the Matador record book, Gomez is just 10 3-point field goals away from breaking Josh Greene's career record of 228 he set six seasons ago. Gomez has 219 career 3-pointers entering play on Wednesday.

On the national leaderboard, Gomez is second in the country with 37 3-point field goals made while he is fourth in points scored (226), sixth in 3-point field goals made per game (3.70) and ninth in points per game (22.6). Brown II is ranked 12th in assist to turnover ratio (3.7) and 38th in assists per game (5.5). Entering play this week, Gomez leads the Big West in points per game and free throw percentage (89.7) while Brown II is tops in assists per game and ranked second in assists to turnover. Sophomore Elijah Harkless is also among the conference leaders in three categories, which include steals per game (third place-1.5 SPG), rebounds per game (ninth place, 5.3 RPG) and defensive rebounds per game (ninth place, 4.1 DRPG).

The Matadors will play North Dakota State for the first time in team history on Wednesday night. CSUN last faced a Summit League team in Nov. 2015 when the Matadors fell to South Dakota (76-72) in a game that took place in DeKalb, Ill. The Matadors' last home game against a team from the league took place in Dec. 2014, also against South Dakota, as the Coyotes prevailed as well, 68-65.

A Closer Look at North Dakota State
The Bison come in 6-4 on the season after splitting two last week. NDSU dropped a 71-60 decision at Indiana State on Tuesday before defeating East Tennessee State on Saturday, 78-68. The team has won four Summit League Tournament titles over the last 11 seasons including in 2018-19 when NDSU won the tournament as a fourth seed. The Bison defeated North Carolina Central in the 2019 NCAA First Four before falling to No. 1 Duke in the Round of 64.

Senior Vinnie Shahid leads the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game to go with 3.5 rebounds. Fellow senior, Tyson Ward is the team's top rebounder with 6.9 per game while he is averaging 12.1 points. Reigning Summit League Player of the Week junior Rocky Kreuser is averaging 9.9 points and 6.8 rebounds. The Bison are averaging just 10.2 turnovers per game this season, which is ranked seventh-lowest in the nation.

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CSUN Hosts North Dakota State Wednesday at The Matadome

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Players Mentioned

Darius Brown II

Tavrion Dawson

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Brendan Harrick