CSUN Can't Hold Off Late Rally by Hawai'i

HONOLULU---CSUN Men's Basketball (9-15, 4-4 Big West) could not hold onto a second-half lead in the final minutes as Hawai'i edged the Matadors 80-75 on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. Sophomore Lamine Diane posted his 26th career double-double, finishing with 23 points and 11 rebounds while sophomore Elijah Harkless had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists. Junior Terrell Gomez added 13 points. The Matadors led by as many as 17 points in the second half before the Rainbow Warriors outscored CSUN 32-10 to close the game.

CSUN shot 52.7 percent for the game and made 3-of-7 from 3-point range (42.9 percent). The Rainbow Warriors finished with a 47.7 shooting percentage while they hit 10-of-28 from long range (35.7 percent). The Matadors out-rebounded Hawai'i 33-28 and held a slight edge in points in the paint, 36-34.

FIRST HALF
Darius Brown II found Diane for a dunk on the Matadors' first possession and Harkless followed with a mid-range jumper to put CSUN up 4-0 early on. The Rainbow Warriors would storm back behind 3-pointers from Eddie Stansberry and Drew Buggs to take a 10-8 lead. CSUN turned up its play on the defensive side of the ball, holding Hawai'i scoreless for four minutes and surged in front. The Matadors went on a 10-0 run, highlighted by baskets from Festus Ndumanya and Brendan Harrick off the bench. Ndumanya stroked a mid-range jumper to push the Matadors ahead 22-13, forcing a Hawai'i timeout with 9:58 to play.

Hawai'i pulled to within 25-21 after 3-pointers from Buggs and Stansberry but the Matadors stayed in front for the remainder of the half. The Matadors went on a 6-0 run to push the lead to 33-23 after a Ndumanya layup. Harkless scored a team-high 12 points in the half including a layup after Lance Coleman II pulled down an offensive rebound. Ndumanya added eight points on 4-of-4 shooting in the half to help keep the Matadors in front. Brown II closed the half on a driving layup to send CSUN into the break ahead 41-32.

SECOND HALF
After Justin Webster knocked down a 3-pointer to start the half, the Matadors made their three-straight baskets to open up a 47-35 lead. Minutes later, Diane pulled down a defensive rebound, led the break and found Brown II for an easy bucket to stretch the lead to 14 points (51-37). The Matadors continued to lead by double digits in the early minutes of the second half as a Gomez 3-pointer made it a 56-39 game. The Rainbow Warriors closed the gap to 13 on a layup from Eddie Stansberry but CSUN went back up by 17 on back-to-back Diane buckets.

Trailing 65-48 with 11:06 to play, the Rainbow Warriors quickly trimmed the lead to 10 after 3-pointers from Stansberry and Webster. The lead shrunk even further following two-straight empty CSUN possessions, leading to two-straight layups from Dawson Carper. Diane finally ended a four-minute field goal drought to extend the lead to 68-59. The Rainbow Warriors continued to chip away in the closing minutes as Stansberry drilled a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 72-70. Diane later made a free throw to put CSUN up by three but Zigmars Raimo scored on the next possession. Raimo would put the Rainbow Warriors in front with 40 seconds remaining off an inbound pass. Gomez just missed a mid-range jumper to put the Matadors ahead and Diane was whistled for a late travel, giving Hawai'i an opportunity to pull out the win.

ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"I thought our kids played really hard. We had a couple breakdowns defensively and offensively we had couple. We have to execute better down the stretch. We made some mistakes and they took advantage of every one of them. They made key baskets in key times and did a great job. It's a tough one. We had a good lead and gave it up."

GAME NOTES
With his 26th career double-double, Diane now has sole possession of fifth place on the Matadors' career list. His next double-double would put him in a tie for fourth place with George Robnett (1970-74).

Ndumanya finished with eight points to go with three rebounds and two blocks. Brown II also had eight points with two assists.

For Hawai'i, Stansberry had a team-high 22 points.

UP NEXT
CSUN returns to The Matadome next Saturday to host UC Riverside at 7 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call at 6:50 p.m on BigWest.TV.

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Team Stats

Lamine Diane

Elijah Harkless

Terrell Gomez

Festus Ndumanya

Players Mentioned

Darius Brown II

Lance Coleman II

Lamine Diane

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Brendan Harrick

Festus Ndumanya