Friday, November 19
Northridge, Calif.
2:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
0-3,0-0Big West
64
vs
67
Eastern Washington
2-2,0-0Big Sky
1
2
OT 1
F
Eastern Wash.
26
34
7
67
CSUN
31
29
4
64
Team Stats
EWU
CSUN
FG%
.368
.343
3FG%
.387
.238
FT%
.684
.846
RB
42
45
TO
14
10
STL
3
4
Game Leaders
Pts
18
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
1
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
G/F
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Will Navarro
Matadors Lose Heartbreaker to Eastern Washington in OT
11/19/2021 4:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball (0-3) fell to Eastern Washington (2-2) 67-64 in overtime on Friday afternoon at the Good Sam Empire Classic inside The Matadome. Four Matadors scored in double figures led by Elijah Hardy, who scored a career-high 18 points and added 10 rebounds. Christian Gray collected 12 points and seven rebounds while Miles James registered 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting in his CSUN debut. Onyi Eyisi chipped in with 10 points. The Matadors led by 13 points with six-plus minutes to play but the Eagles went on a 15-2 run to close regulation before prevailing in overtime.
The Eagles shot 36.8 percent from the floor while the Matadors shot 34.3 percent. Eastern Washington knocked down 12-of-31 from 3-point range (38.7 percent) and 13-of-19 at the free throw line (68.4 percent). CSUN would only hit 5-of-21 from the 3-point arc (23.8 percent) but made 11-of-13 at the free throw line (84.6 percent). CSUN edged Eastern Washington in rebounds, 45-42.
GAME BREAKDOWN
Eastern Washington raced out to an 11-6 lead following back-to-back 3-pointers from Linton Acliese. CSUN fell behind as many as eight points (17-9) in the first half after going 3-of-15 from the field to start the game. However, the Matadors would receive a lift from Eyisi near the midway mark of the half as the 6-9 forward scored six points in a 10-0 run that put the home team ahead by two. The lead though was short-lived as the Eagles countered quickly with a 6-0 spurt, capped by a layup from Acliese, to reclaim the lead.
The teams traded the leads down the stretch of the first half before CSUN closed the period on an 8-2 run. After Gray scored inside off a pass from Hardy, the Matadors took a 31-26 lead on a buzzer-beater from Hardy from inside the 3-point arc.
Out of intermission, the Matadors missed their first four shots while the Eagles put together an 8-0 run to take a 34-31 lead. Looking for a spark, the Matadors turned to Hardy who scored seven-straight points to put CSUN back in front. From there, James caught fire offensively with five-straight made field goals to help stretch the Matador lead. After knocking down a jumper to give CSUN a two-point edge, James scored four straight CSUN points to make it a 50-43 game. Hardy then stretched the lead even further to double-digits with a 3-pointer.
Kailen Rains sank a trey with 6:26 to play that put the Matadors ahead by their biggest margin of 58-45. Seemingly in control, the Matadors went cold offensively, giving the Eagles a chance to rally. Eastern Washington scored six unanswered points until James hit a jumper to push the lead to nine. However, James' jumper was CSUN's final made field goal for the game. The Matadors missed seven consecutive shots to close regulation while the Eagles went on a 9-0 run to tie the game.
Steele Venters gave the Eagles the lead on the first possession of extra time before Acliese sank two free throws to stretch the lead to 64-60. Gray provided the Matadors with their only points of overtime, all of which came at the free throw line. CSUN trailed 66-64 with under two minutes to play but missed three shots to tie the game. Venters split two free throws with five seconds left, giving CSUN a chance to tie in the closing seconds, but time expired before the Matadors could record a shot.
GAME NOTES
Hardy registered his first career double-double on Friday and made 7-of-16 from the field. He also scored 13 of his 18 points after halftime. Eyisi finished 4-of-7 from the field while Gray made 4-of-8 field goals. Darius Beane grabbed nine rebounds in 20 minutes of action. James and Brendan Harrick made their season debuts after missing the first two games of the season.
For the Eagles, Acliese had a game-high 20 points while Venters scored 15 points. In the early game of the Good Sam Empire Classic, Texas State defeated Dixie State, 85-65, to advance to the championship game against Eastern Washington.
COACH TRENT JOHNSON POST-GAME COMMENTS
"The effort was good. You've got an eight-point lead with about five, six minutes to go and then our decision-making was horrendous from that point moving forward. I thought we had a lot of guys looking and searching for shots, which didn't get us in that position because we were running our stuff. [Eastern Washington] is an experienced basketball team but we had too many guys searching for shots and we had guys get tentative when we ran a lot of on-ball situations. Our decision-making and basketball IQ were not very good [down the stretch]. We have a lot of guys that have been put in situations where they haven't been there in their basketball careers. There were some positives, obviously, Hardy played well offensively. I thought Miles James gave us a lift."
UP NEXT
CSUN concludes the Good Sam Empire Classic in a third-place game against Dixie State at noon inside The Matadome. The game will stream on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.
Â
The Eagles shot 36.8 percent from the floor while the Matadors shot 34.3 percent. Eastern Washington knocked down 12-of-31 from 3-point range (38.7 percent) and 13-of-19 at the free throw line (68.4 percent). CSUN would only hit 5-of-21 from the 3-point arc (23.8 percent) but made 11-of-13 at the free throw line (84.6 percent). CSUN edged Eastern Washington in rebounds, 45-42.
GAME BREAKDOWN
Eastern Washington raced out to an 11-6 lead following back-to-back 3-pointers from Linton Acliese. CSUN fell behind as many as eight points (17-9) in the first half after going 3-of-15 from the field to start the game. However, the Matadors would receive a lift from Eyisi near the midway mark of the half as the 6-9 forward scored six points in a 10-0 run that put the home team ahead by two. The lead though was short-lived as the Eagles countered quickly with a 6-0 spurt, capped by a layup from Acliese, to reclaim the lead.
The teams traded the leads down the stretch of the first half before CSUN closed the period on an 8-2 run. After Gray scored inside off a pass from Hardy, the Matadors took a 31-26 lead on a buzzer-beater from Hardy from inside the 3-point arc.
Out of intermission, the Matadors missed their first four shots while the Eagles put together an 8-0 run to take a 34-31 lead. Looking for a spark, the Matadors turned to Hardy who scored seven-straight points to put CSUN back in front. From there, James caught fire offensively with five-straight made field goals to help stretch the Matador lead. After knocking down a jumper to give CSUN a two-point edge, James scored four straight CSUN points to make it a 50-43 game. Hardy then stretched the lead even further to double-digits with a 3-pointer.
Kailen Rains sank a trey with 6:26 to play that put the Matadors ahead by their biggest margin of 58-45. Seemingly in control, the Matadors went cold offensively, giving the Eagles a chance to rally. Eastern Washington scored six unanswered points until James hit a jumper to push the lead to nine. However, James' jumper was CSUN's final made field goal for the game. The Matadors missed seven consecutive shots to close regulation while the Eagles went on a 9-0 run to tie the game.
Steele Venters gave the Eagles the lead on the first possession of extra time before Acliese sank two free throws to stretch the lead to 64-60. Gray provided the Matadors with their only points of overtime, all of which came at the free throw line. CSUN trailed 66-64 with under two minutes to play but missed three shots to tie the game. Venters split two free throws with five seconds left, giving CSUN a chance to tie in the closing seconds, but time expired before the Matadors could record a shot.
GAME NOTES
Hardy registered his first career double-double on Friday and made 7-of-16 from the field. He also scored 13 of his 18 points after halftime. Eyisi finished 4-of-7 from the field while Gray made 4-of-8 field goals. Darius Beane grabbed nine rebounds in 20 minutes of action. James and Brendan Harrick made their season debuts after missing the first two games of the season.
For the Eagles, Acliese had a game-high 20 points while Venters scored 15 points. In the early game of the Good Sam Empire Classic, Texas State defeated Dixie State, 85-65, to advance to the championship game against Eastern Washington.
COACH TRENT JOHNSON POST-GAME COMMENTS
"The effort was good. You've got an eight-point lead with about five, six minutes to go and then our decision-making was horrendous from that point moving forward. I thought we had a lot of guys looking and searching for shots, which didn't get us in that position because we were running our stuff. [Eastern Washington] is an experienced basketball team but we had too many guys searching for shots and we had guys get tentative when we ran a lot of on-ball situations. Our decision-making and basketball IQ were not very good [down the stretch]. We have a lot of guys that have been put in situations where they haven't been there in their basketball careers. There were some positives, obviously, Hardy played well offensively. I thought Miles James gave us a lift."
UP NEXT
CSUN concludes the Good Sam Empire Classic in a third-place game against Dixie State at noon inside The Matadome. The game will stream on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.
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