Harkless Records First Triple-Double in Team History, CSUN Rolls to 109-75 Win

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---Sophomore Elijah Harkless posted the first triple-double in school history as CSUN Men's Basketball (5-11) defeated Saint Katherine 109-75 on Saturday afternoon at The Matadome. Harkless finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists while adding four steals to his stat line. Junior Terrell Gomez scored a game-high 25 points while sophomores Jared Pearre and Michael Ou tallied 19 points and 17 points, respectively. Junior Lance Coleman II recorded his first career double-double as he registered 15 points and 10 rebounds. The Matadors blew open a 10-point halftime lead in the second half and led by as many as 36 points.

The Matadors tied a season-high in shooting percentage (54.2) while they held the Firebirds to 43.9 percent shooting. CSUN shot 9-of-24 from 3-point range (37.5 percent) and 22-of-30 at the foul line (73.3 percent). Saint Katherine finished 9-of-19 from downtown (47.4 percent) and 16-of-25 at the charity stripe (64.0 percent). The Matadors out-rebounded the opposition 41-34 and owned a 41-14 edge in fastbreak points.

FIRST HALF
Saint Katherine got off to a solid start, leading 6-5 at the first media timeout but CSUN answered with a 12-0 run as Coleman II scored five of those points. The lead stood at nine points after a drive from Ou but five-straight Firebird points quickly closed the gap to 19-15. Gomez steadied the ship with five-straight points then Harkless drained a jumper to push the lead to 26-18 at the 9:32 mark.

The game remained tight at 28-22 with under eight minutes to play before consecutive steals from Brendan Harrick and Harkless led to buckets on the other end. Later in the half, Harkless found Pearre on a drive to basket to push the lead to double-digits at 40-30. Still, Saint Katherine remained in the game thanks to hot shooting from 3-point range as it made 7-of-11 in the stanza. With the lead at 44-40, CSUN closed the half on a 9-3 spurt. Coleman II drained a 3-pointer with 1:22 to play then Pearre finished at the rim after cleaning up the offensive glass. Gomez made two late free throws to stretch the lead to 53-43 at the break.

SECOND HALF
Out of halftime, Harkless picked up assists on the Matadors' first two shots as he helped spearhead a 9-0 run. Harkless would also make back-to-back baskets early on while Brown II scored at the hoop to stretch the lead to 68-47. Pearre scored five-straight points during one stretch including a slam dunk off a feed from Brown II. Harkless found Gomez for a 3-pointer that widened the Matadors' lead to 81-49 with under 11 minutes to go.

Pearre and Ou gave the Matadors 13 and 10 points, respectively in the second half while Harkless scored 13. Ou got The Matadome faithful on their feet with an offensive-rebound dunk before Harkless pushed the Matadors over the century mark with a layup. Needing one assist from a triple-double, Harkless picked up the helper on a feed to a cutting Pearre who dunked the ball with 1:33 to play. Ou gave the Matadors one last highlight reel with a coast-to-coast 3-point play to push the lead to the biggest of the night at 108-72.

This assist gave Elijah Harkless the first ever triple-double in school history. 22 points 11 rebounds and 10 assists (and 4 steals) pic.twitter.com/LZalJbUxP1
— CSUN Men's Basketball (@CSUNMBB) January 5, 2020

GAME NOTES
Harkless' 22 points and 10 assists are career-highs while Pearre and Ou collected new career-bests in points and Coleman II set a new personal-best total in rebounds. Pearre also finished 9-of-9 from the field. Gomez made 9-of-18 shots including 5-of-11 from 3-point range.

The Matadors' 109 points are the most in a game since scoring 120 against Vanguard on Dec. 5, 2012. It is the first time since Feb. 1, 2017 they have hit the century mark in points in a game (against Long Beach State). Also, CSUN set new season-highs in field goals made (39) and assists (23).

For the Firebirds, Zethan Dumpson scored a team-high 13 points.

ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"I was happy for our guys and proud of them. Obviously, we weren't playing the Lakers today but at the same time, you have to handle your business. I was proud of Elijah, he's been actually close a couple of times to some triple-doubles, and today he did so many things on the floor. Also, I liked the fact that we got 37 points out of our post guys between Michael, Jared and Festus. Jared played just terrific and Michael got a little better. Sometimes you need a game like this to give you a little bit of confidence, play well and feel good about yourself."

"Now you wipe the slate clean. Zero and zero is your record and you get to play all of your league games. We feel we can play with anybody and now we just have to keep getting better."

UP NEXT
CSUN now sets its sight on Big West play beginning Wednesday against Long Beach State at 7 p.m. The game will stream live on ESPN3 while Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call in an audio broadcast on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health at 6:50 p.m.

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Team Stats

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Jared Pearre

Michael Ou

Players Mentioned

Lance Coleman II

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Brendan Harrick

Michael Ou

Jared Pearre