CSUN Looks To Defend Big West Tournament Title

Women's Basketball Notebook

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—CSUN looks to defend its Big West Conference women's basketball tournament title this week as the Matadors begin play Wednesday night.

CSUN (16-14, 10-6 BWC), the fourth seed, will face the highest seed remaining at UC Irvine's Bren Events Center Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. or 30 minutes upon the conclusion of the game between the third seed UC Riverside (16-14, 10-6 BWC), and the lowest seed remaining. The tournament begins Tuesday when No. 5 UC Irvine (18-10, 8-8 BWC) faces No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (8-21, 5-11 BWC) at 6 p.m. and No. 6 Cal State Fullerton (14-15, 6-10 BWC) plays No. 7 Long Beach State 8-21, 5-11 BWC) at 8:30 p.m.

The winners of Wednesday's action advance to the Honda Center in Anaheim on Friday where the lowest remaining seed plays No. 1 UC Davis (23-6, 15-1 BWC) at 12 p.m. followed by the second lowest remaining seed taking on No. 2 Hawai'i (14-15, 10-6 BWC) at 2:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m.

All of the games will be streamed by ESPN 3 with audio only coverage on the CSUN Sports Network beginning 10 minutes prior to the scheduled tip.

The Matadors have won three of the past five Big West Tournaments.

Channon Fluker repeated as Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year to lead the CSUN honors Monday as the conference announced its women's basketball award winners.

The league's nine coaches rewarded the 6-4 center's prowess on the defensive end of the floor. She led the league in rebounding (11.3) and blocked shots with a school season record 110. Fluker leads Division I in blocks and blocked shot average (3.67). Fluker's 110 blocks is currently tied for eighth on the Big West single season list while her 309 career blocks have made her just third player to reach 300 rejections in Big West history.

This is the fourth time in six years that a CSUN player has been named BWC Defensive Player of the Year. Fluker is only the third player in conference history (Angie Ned, UCI, 2005-07, Jewelyn Sawyer, Long Beach State, 2015-17) as a back-to-back winner of the award.

Fluker earned first team All-Conference honors for the fourth consecutive year. She was third in the league in scoring (16.4) and ninth in field goal shooting (16.4). She is now only one of five players in Big West history be named first team All-Conference four times.

Serafina Maulupe was selected second team All-Conference for the second time in her career. The 5-8 graduate student became the 13th CSUN women's basketball player to score at least 1000 points with a jumper at the 6:08 mark of the second quarter during the 49-29 victory at Hawai'i Jan. 17. Second on the team in scoring (8.8), she enters this week's action with 1,131 points in her career.

Joining Fluker on the All-Defensive team is junior Eliza Matthews. The 2017 Big West Freshman of the Year, Matthews averaged 5.5 rebounds per game, the 12th best in the Big West, in only 17 minutes per game coming off the CSUN bench.

The final CSUN honoree is Jordyn Jackson who was named to the All-Freshman team. Jackson appeared in all 30 regular season Matador games, starting eight times. She scored in double figures on six occasions including a season best 16 against San Diego State Dec. 9.

~www.GoMatadors.com~

CSUN Looks To Defend Big West Tournament Title

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Players Mentioned

Channon Fluker

Jordyn Jackson

Eliza Matthews

Serafina Maulupe