Matadors Drop 79-73 Decision at Pacific

STOCKTON, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball cut a 21-point deficit down to five late on Sunday but the Matadors' rally fell short to Pacific in a 79-73 defeat at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Junior Terrell Gomez scored a game-high 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting while junior Lance Coleman II tallied 14 points off the bench. Sophomore Darius Brown II chipped in with 13 points.

CSUN (2-10) shot 52.1 percent from the field and went 7-of-16 from 3-point range (43.8 percent). The Tigers narrowly outshot the Matadors, finishing with a 53.7 shooting percentage. Pacific would make 10-of-19 from beyond the arc (52.6 percent). On the glass, Pacific enjoyed a 32-21 advantage including a 13-3 edge in offensive rebounds.

FIRST HALF
The teams combined for eight lead changes in the first eight minutes of the half before Pacific took advantage of a key Matador five-minute scoring drought. In the early going, Harkless nailed a mid-ranger to give the Matadors a 7-5 lead and Gomez followed with a jumper of his own on the ensuing possession. CSUN made five of its first six shots to take an 11-10 lead into the first media timeout. After Pacific took a one-point lead, Gomez converted on a 4-point play at the 13:59 mark.

An Elijah Harkless free throw gave the Matadors a 16-12 lead but the Matadors went cold for the next five minutes. The Tigers took advantage and went on a 15-0 run over that span as a Pierre Crockrell II jumper gave Pacific an 11-point lead. Festus Ndumanya finally ended the drought with a putback layup before a Coleman II mid-range jumper cut into the deficit. Darius Brown II made it a 35-26 game with a jumper but CSUN went without a point for the final 3:49 of the half. Jahlil Tripp converted on a basket in the lane late to push Pacific ahead 39-26 at the break.

SECOND HALF
CSUN would pull to within 39-28 on a jumper from Gomez before Pacific went on an 8-1 run to go up by 18 points. The Matadors fell behind by as many as 21 points (52-31) after a 3-pointer from Jahbril Price-Noel at the 14:21 mark of the half. With the huge hill to climb, Gomez and Coleman II shouldered the load offensively as CSUN chipped away at the deficit in the remaining minutes.

The lead stood at 19 points with 5:22 to play before Brown II nailed a corner 3-pointer. Ndumanya scored down low after a steal from Harkless then Gomez sunk a trey, bringing CSUN to within 74-63. CSUN finally saw the lead shrink to single digits (76-67) after Coleman II drained two free throws with 2:32 on the clock. Moments later, with the lead at nine, Gomez drilled a mid-range jumper with a little over a minute to play. The teams traded empty possessions before Brown II earned his way to the free throw line to bring CSUN to within 78-73 with 31 seconds left. CSUN eventually had a chance to cut the deficit to possibly three points when Brown II drove to the hoop and scored but a crucial charging call was made, sealing the win for Pacific.

GAME NOTES
Gomez surpassed Jeff Parris (1997-01) for ninth place on the Matadors' all-time career scoring list on Sunday. With his 29-point effort, Gomez has scored 1,274 career points in his two-plus years with the Matadors. Going 4-for-5 from 3-point range, Gomez sits on 225 career 3-pointers and just four away from breaking Josh Greene's (2010-14) school record.

Harkless grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go with seven points, five assists and four steals. Ndumanya added eight points and five rebounds.

For Pacific, Tripp finished with 17 points to lead the Tigers.

ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"My first thought is [Pacific] is a pretty good basketball team, they're a lot better than they were last year. I'm proud of our guys. Disappointed for them – I hate it for our guys because it's tough to walk out of here sometimes when you lose but at the same time there's a lot of positives. Our kids competed really hard and our zone was good for us today at times – we just had some critical errors here and there.

Terrell was terrific, I thought Elijah gave us some great minutes – that kid plays really hard and he ends up with 10 rebounds again. Our guys didn't quit, they didn't lay down and they're competing but we just don't have enough right now. We're going to get there."

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UP NEXT
CSUN is off until next Sunday, Dec. 22 when it hosts San Francisco State at 3 p.m. Coverage on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health through BigWest.TV starts at 2:50 p.m.

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Team Stats

Terrell Gomez

Lance Coleman II

Darius Brown II

Festus Ndumanya

Players Mentioned

Darius Brown II

Lance Coleman II

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Festus Ndumanya