Diane's Late Free Throws Lift CSUN Past UC Riverside, 61-59

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---Sophomore Lamine Diane made two free throws with four seconds remaining to help lift CSUN Men's Basketball (10-15, 5-4 Big West) to a 61-59 win over UC Riverside (14-11, 4-5 Big West) on Saturday at The Matadome. Junior Terrell Gomez led all Matadors with 17 points while Diane pulled down 15 rebounds to go with 12 points. Junior Lance Coleman II added 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. The Matadors surrendered a seven-point lead late in the final minutes but held on following Diane's two free throws to secure a season sweep of the Highlanders.

The Matadors shot 37.9 percent from the floor and made 8-of-24 from 3-point range (33.3 percent). On the flip side, the Highlanders were held to 38.2 percent shooting to go with a 9-of-25 effort from downtown (36.0 percent). CSUN made 9-of-12 from the free throw line (75.0 percent) while UC Riverside converted on 8-of-11 (72.7 percent). The Matadors pulled out a 37-35 advantage in rebounding.

FIRST HALF
After staking to a 7-3 lead in the first two minutes of the game, the Matadors went on to miss 12 of their next 13 shots as the Highlanders took a 13-9 lead. Coleman II missed his first two shots but found his shooting touch soon after, sinking his next four shots. He drilled three treys in the first half to help put the Matadors in front 23-20 with 5:12 left in the first half. Both teams struggled from the field in the first half as CSUN shot 34.6 percent while UCR made just 33.3 percent of its shots.

Gomez capped an 8-0 run with a driving layup to put CSUN up by five with a little over a minute to go in the first half. Dragen Elkraz would drill a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession but Darius Brown II picked up a traditional 3-point play seconds later to hand CSUN a 28-23 advantage at the break. Coleman II scored 11 points in the half to lead the way for the Matadors while Brown II chipped in with six.

SECOND HALF
Diane and Elijah Harkless scored the Matadors' first two baskets to quickly extend the lead to 32-23 in the opening 90 seconds of the half. Gomez later gave the Matadors a double-digit advantage with a 3-pointer (35-25). Diane would find Pearre on a dunk inside before drilling a jumper of his own, resulting in a CSUN 12-point lead. Zyon Pullin brought the Highlanders within nine on a 3-pointer but Ndumanya converted on the next CSUN possession. Coleman II found the bottom of the net once more from downtown with 11:58 to play, giving CSUN a 49-35 lead.

After Harkless drained two-straight at the free throw line, the Matadors went up 55-41 with 7:10 on the clock. However, the Highlanders would fight back behind the tandem Callum McRae and Arize Chidom. A three-3-point play from Chidom quickly capped a 7-0 run to trim the CSUN advantage to seven. McRae later converted on a layup inside, bringing the Highlanders within six (57-51). Diane sank a pair at the free throw line to give the Matadors breathing room but McRae again scored in the paint to make it a five-point game. Chidom would then drill a 3-pointer to cut the CSUN lead to 59-57 with 14 seconds to play. After a UCR foul, Coleman II missed the front end of a 1-and-1 at the free throw line, leading to a game-tying drive from Khy Kabellis.

With four seconds to play, Brendan Harrick threw an inbound pass across the court to a driving Diane. Chidom would commit a foul sending Diane to the line with a chance to take the lead. Needing to make the first free throw in a 1-and-1 situation, Diane made the first free throw and sank the second to put the Matadors up two. Kabellis missed a last-second 3-pointer, securing a CSUN win.

GAME NOTES
Gomez entered the top five in career field goals made in CSUN history on Saturday. With seven made shots (on 13 attempts), Gomez moved past George Robnett (1970-74) and Jonathan Heard (2004-08) into fifth place on the career list with 502 made from the field. Diane also tied Robnett for fourth place on the career double-double list with his 27th. On the career assist list, Brown II caught Trenton Cross (1994-98) for 10th place on the list with 281 assists.

Brown II finished with eight points while Harkless added six points and four assists.

For the Highlanders, McRae had a team-high 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting.

ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"First half against their zone, we just couldn't buy one and I thought we took a few quick ones. We needed to move the ball a little bit better. We got a nice little lead and protected it but you have to give [UC Riverside] credit. They never went away and kept coming, and we made some errors late in the game. Brendan makes a great pass to Lamine. It's a play we work on almost every day. You have to give Lamine credit, from a year ago to today, what a great job of improvement [from the free throw line]. He really struggled today but he came up big when we needed him to at the foul line."

UP NEXT
CSUN returns to action next Thursday (Feb. 13) to take on Cal Poly at The Matadome at 7 p.m. The game will broadcast live on ESPN3.

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Team Stats

Terrell Gomez

Lance Coleman II

Lamine Diane

Darius Brown II

Players Mentioned

Darius Brown II

Lance Coleman II

Lamine Diane

Terrell Gomez

Elijah Harkless

Brendan Harrick