Saturday, January 16
Fullerton, Calif.
7:00 pm
California State University at Northridge
5-3,1-0Big West
86
at
85
Cal State Fullerton
2-4,1-4Big West
1
2
F
CSUN
32
54
86
Cal St. Fullerton
31
54
85
Team Stats
CSUN
CSF
FG%
.450
.439
3FG%
.400
.407
FT%
.733
.696
RB
35
41
TO
11
11
STL
2
7
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
25
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
11
Pts
25
FGM
8
3FGM
7
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G/F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Braden Villanueva
Brown and Harrick Lead CSUN Past Fullerton, 86-85
1/16/2021 9:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
FULLERTON, Calif.---On a career night for junior Darius Brown II and sophomore Brendan Harrick, CSUN Men's Basketball (5-3, 1-0 Big West) held off a late charge from Cal State Fullerton (2-4, 1-4 Big West) for an 86-85 win to start league play on Saturday night at Titan Gym. Brown II recorded his first career double-double, dishing out a personal-best 13 assists while adding 25 points and six rebounds. Harrick added a career-high 25 points and seven 3-pointers on 10 attempts. The Matadors withstood a furious Titan rally in the final minute to start conference play with a victory.
Junior Vante Hendrix finished with 12 points and four rebounds while sophomore Festus Ndumanya added 10 points and six rebounds. Freshman Alex Merkviladze grabbed nine rebounds and scored six points.
After a tough shooting first half for both teams, each side finished strong from the field as the Matadors shot 45.0 percent and the Titans made 43.9 percent of their shots. CSUN made 10-of-25 from 3-point range (40.0 percent) while the Titans knocked down 11-of-27 (40.7 percent). The Matadors converted on 22-of-30 from the free throw line (73.3 percent) compared to the Titans, who made 16-of-23 (69.6 percent). Fullerton edged CSUN in rebounds, 41-35.
FIRST HALF
Both teams shot below 40 percent in the first half but the Matadors would stake to an early 12-7 lead behind early 3-pointers from Hendrix and Harrick. Brown II knocked down a trey of his own at the 9:00 mark, giving CSUN a four-point edge, but the Titans responded with a 12-3 run. Vincent Lee's layup pushed the Fullerton lead to 25-20 near the four-minute mark.Â
CSUN fell behind by as many as six points (29-23) before ending the half with a 9-2 run. Harrick, who missed his first two 3-pointers, made two shots from downtown over the final two minutes to give the Matadors a 32-31 edge at halftime. Brown II shouldered the load offensively with 10 points in first half.
SECOND HALF
The teams traded leads multiple times in the early minutes of the second half before a 6-0 run from the Titans, capped by a layup from Lee put the home team ahead 47-43. After a CSUN timeout, the Matadors responded with three-straight baskets. Harrick knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Merkviladze finished in transition after a feed from Brown II. The Matadors' point guard would pick up a steal and another assist on a traditional 3-point play from Hendrix at the 11-minute mark. Hendrix's free throw to complete the 3-point play capped a CSUN 16-0 run that put the Matadors on top 59-47.
Fullerton though answered back with three-straight 3-pointers to quickly cut the CSUN advantage to three. Brown II stopped the run with three-straight points before finding Harrick for a driving layup to quickly push the lead back up to eight points. Hendrix converted on another 3-point play as the Matadors took a 69-61 lead into the four-minute media timeout. After falling behind by 10 points, Fullerton scored six-straight points but Harrick drained two consecutive 3-pointers to push the advantage back to double digits.
The final minute would be a wild one as CSUN entered the last 60 seconds ahead 79-67 only to see the Titans score 18 points. Fullerton nailed four 3-pointers and made four free throws to quickly trim into the Matador lead. Tory San Antonio converted on a four-point play with less than a second remaining to trim the deficit to one but it would not be enough to overtake CSUN.
GAME NOTES
Recording his first career double-double and personal-best 13 assists, Brown II finished one point shy of tying his career-high in points. His 13 assists are the most by a Matador since Josh Greene hit that assist total in Jan. 2012 against Eastern Washington while the total is tied for the sixth-most in a game in team history.
Harrick's seven 3-pointers are tied for the third-most made in a game in Matador history. CSUN also made history as a program on Saturday by posting its 800th all-time win.
The Matadors earned their third-straight win to start league play under head coach Mark Gottfried. CSUN played without leading scorers TJ Starks and Lance Coleman II in the win.
For Cal State Fullerton, San Antonio had a team-high 21 points.
ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"I'm really proud our team, to play without our two leading scorers. It was a really gutsy win on the road. Darius was terrific for us, Brendan made shots and Vante was really good defensively on their best player (Tray Maddox Jr.), who never really got going offensively. We took a long time off and you never know how a team will respond with that but it's a really good team win."
UP NEXT
The Matadors go for the season sweep of the Titans when the teams conclude their series on Sunday at 7 p.m. The game will stream on BigWest.TV while Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call at GoMatadors.com/Radio starting at 6:50 p.m.
#UniteTheValley
Â
Junior Vante Hendrix finished with 12 points and four rebounds while sophomore Festus Ndumanya added 10 points and six rebounds. Freshman Alex Merkviladze grabbed nine rebounds and scored six points.
After a tough shooting first half for both teams, each side finished strong from the field as the Matadors shot 45.0 percent and the Titans made 43.9 percent of their shots. CSUN made 10-of-25 from 3-point range (40.0 percent) while the Titans knocked down 11-of-27 (40.7 percent). The Matadors converted on 22-of-30 from the free throw line (73.3 percent) compared to the Titans, who made 16-of-23 (69.6 percent). Fullerton edged CSUN in rebounds, 41-35.
FIRST HALF
Both teams shot below 40 percent in the first half but the Matadors would stake to an early 12-7 lead behind early 3-pointers from Hendrix and Harrick. Brown II knocked down a trey of his own at the 9:00 mark, giving CSUN a four-point edge, but the Titans responded with a 12-3 run. Vincent Lee's layup pushed the Fullerton lead to 25-20 near the four-minute mark.Â
CSUN fell behind by as many as six points (29-23) before ending the half with a 9-2 run. Harrick, who missed his first two 3-pointers, made two shots from downtown over the final two minutes to give the Matadors a 32-31 edge at halftime. Brown II shouldered the load offensively with 10 points in first half.
SECOND HALF
The teams traded leads multiple times in the early minutes of the second half before a 6-0 run from the Titans, capped by a layup from Lee put the home team ahead 47-43. After a CSUN timeout, the Matadors responded with three-straight baskets. Harrick knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Merkviladze finished in transition after a feed from Brown II. The Matadors' point guard would pick up a steal and another assist on a traditional 3-point play from Hendrix at the 11-minute mark. Hendrix's free throw to complete the 3-point play capped a CSUN 16-0 run that put the Matadors on top 59-47.
Fullerton though answered back with three-straight 3-pointers to quickly cut the CSUN advantage to three. Brown II stopped the run with three-straight points before finding Harrick for a driving layup to quickly push the lead back up to eight points. Hendrix converted on another 3-point play as the Matadors took a 69-61 lead into the four-minute media timeout. After falling behind by 10 points, Fullerton scored six-straight points but Harrick drained two consecutive 3-pointers to push the advantage back to double digits.
The final minute would be a wild one as CSUN entered the last 60 seconds ahead 79-67 only to see the Titans score 18 points. Fullerton nailed four 3-pointers and made four free throws to quickly trim into the Matador lead. Tory San Antonio converted on a four-point play with less than a second remaining to trim the deficit to one but it would not be enough to overtake CSUN.
GAME NOTES
Recording his first career double-double and personal-best 13 assists, Brown II finished one point shy of tying his career-high in points. His 13 assists are the most by a Matador since Josh Greene hit that assist total in Jan. 2012 against Eastern Washington while the total is tied for the sixth-most in a game in team history.
Harrick's seven 3-pointers are tied for the third-most made in a game in Matador history. CSUN also made history as a program on Saturday by posting its 800th all-time win.
The Matadors earned their third-straight win to start league play under head coach Mark Gottfried. CSUN played without leading scorers TJ Starks and Lance Coleman II in the win.
For Cal State Fullerton, San Antonio had a team-high 21 points.
ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
"I'm really proud our team, to play without our two leading scorers. It was a really gutsy win on the road. Darius was terrific for us, Brendan made shots and Vante was really good defensively on their best player (Tray Maddox Jr.), who never really got going offensively. We took a long time off and you never know how a team will respond with that but it's a really good team win."
UP NEXT
The Matadors go for the season sweep of the Titans when the teams conclude their series on Sunday at 7 p.m. The game will stream on BigWest.TV while Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call at GoMatadors.com/Radio starting at 6:50 p.m.
#UniteTheValley
Â
Texas State vs. Eastern Washington
Saturday, November 20
Texas State vs. Dixie State
Friday, November 19
A Conversation With Mark Gottfried
Friday, June 19
Preseason chat with Terrell Gomez
Thursday, October 03