Tuesday, November 9
Los Angeles, Calif.
6:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
0-1,0-0Big West
49
at
89
USC
1-0,0-0Pac-12
1
2
F
CSUN
19
30
49
Southern California
52
37
89
Team Stats
CSUN
USC
FG%
.328
.563
3FG%
.235
.300
FT%
.778
.846
RB
25
40
TO
14
10
STL
6
8
Game Leaders
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Will Navarro
Matadors Fall at USC in Season Opener
11/9/2021 8:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball dropped its season opener to USC 89-49 on Tuesday evening at the Galen Center. Darius Brown II and Atin Wright led the Matadors in scoring with 10 points apiece. Brown added six rebounds and two assists while Miles Brookins tallied nine points and three rebounds.
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The Trojans shot 56.3 percent from the field while the Matadors finished shooting 32.8 percent for the game. CSUN made 4-of-17 from 3-point range (23.5 percent) and 7-of-9 at the free throw line (77.8 percent). USC also out-rebounded CSUN 40-25 and held a 52-20 advantage in points in the paint.
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FIRST HALF
The Trojans would shoot 65.6 percent in the opening stanza as they led from start to finish. USC made six of its first seven shots to put the Matadors in a 13-4 deficit in the early going. CSUN though weathered the storm and chipped away at the lead. After Elijah Hardy drilled a jumper, the Matadors scored on back-to-back possessions to pull to within five. Moments later, Brown connected on a 3-pointer, bringing CSUN closer at 17-13 with 13:21 left on the clock. USC though scored the next five points, capped by a layup from Boogie Ellis that stretched the lead to nine.
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The story of the half would be a key 5:44 stretch where the Trojans broke the game wide open. CSUN went scoreless during that pivotal stretch while USC scored 19 consecutive points led by Isaiah Mobley's eight points. Hardy finally snapped the scoreless string but by that time the Matadors looked up at a 26-point deficit. Joshua Morgan capped the half with a dunk to put USC ahead 52-19. Â
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SECOND HALF
After CSUN made just eight field goals in the first half, the Matadors made their first two field goals to start the second half. Wright drained a 3-pointer that cut the lead to 54-24 but the Trojans answered right back with a trey of their own from Ethan Anderson. While CSUN improved its shooting percentage after intermission, the Trojans would not let the Matadors get any closer than 30 points the rest of the way.
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Despite the score, the Matadors received contributions from several players in the final stanza. Wright would pour in eight points while Brookins tallied seven points and went 3-of-4 from the free throw line. Christian Gray got into the scoring act with a 3-point play near the nine-minute mark that trimmed the USC advantage to 70-38. Onyi Eyisi knocked down the Matadors' final shot of the night with two minutes to go before USC scored the game's final seven points.
COACH TRENT JOHNSON SAID
"In the first half, the thing that was disappointing for me was we had good shots, and with a team like this, you have to knock them down to stay within striking distance, but we took some bad shots when we were down 13, they ran out on us and we stopped competing. We've talked about it, when things get tough, we have to stay together, you've got to compete and dig. There was a five-minute period there where I really struggled with that and it had to be addressed. When you look at the second half, we played them well, we ran our stuff and we were able to guard them at times. [USC] is a basketball team that's very battle-tested, very experienced and they don't care if they are up 20, they are going to try to beat you by 50. So the second half was encouraging because we had some guys that came in and competed.
GAME NOTES
Four Matadors made their team debut on Tuesday with Hardy making his first start with CSUN in his first game. Hardy finished with seven points and three assists while Gray had five points and Eyisi chipped in with four points. Darius Beane played 19 minutes off the bench and picked up an assist.
Brown moved into the Matadors' all-time top-10 list for career steals in the game. After collecting two steals, Brown moved ahead of Josh Greene (2010-14) for 10th place, giving the senior point guard 129 for his career. Brown also started his 87th straight game with CSUN.
UP NEXT
CSUN visits Notre Dame on Saturday at 9 a.m PST. The game will stream on the ACC Network Extra while Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister will be on the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
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#UniteTheValley
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The Trojans shot 56.3 percent from the field while the Matadors finished shooting 32.8 percent for the game. CSUN made 4-of-17 from 3-point range (23.5 percent) and 7-of-9 at the free throw line (77.8 percent). USC also out-rebounded CSUN 40-25 and held a 52-20 advantage in points in the paint.
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FIRST HALF
The Trojans would shoot 65.6 percent in the opening stanza as they led from start to finish. USC made six of its first seven shots to put the Matadors in a 13-4 deficit in the early going. CSUN though weathered the storm and chipped away at the lead. After Elijah Hardy drilled a jumper, the Matadors scored on back-to-back possessions to pull to within five. Moments later, Brown connected on a 3-pointer, bringing CSUN closer at 17-13 with 13:21 left on the clock. USC though scored the next five points, capped by a layup from Boogie Ellis that stretched the lead to nine.
Â
The story of the half would be a key 5:44 stretch where the Trojans broke the game wide open. CSUN went scoreless during that pivotal stretch while USC scored 19 consecutive points led by Isaiah Mobley's eight points. Hardy finally snapped the scoreless string but by that time the Matadors looked up at a 26-point deficit. Joshua Morgan capped the half with a dunk to put USC ahead 52-19. Â
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SECOND HALF
After CSUN made just eight field goals in the first half, the Matadors made their first two field goals to start the second half. Wright drained a 3-pointer that cut the lead to 54-24 but the Trojans answered right back with a trey of their own from Ethan Anderson. While CSUN improved its shooting percentage after intermission, the Trojans would not let the Matadors get any closer than 30 points the rest of the way.
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Despite the score, the Matadors received contributions from several players in the final stanza. Wright would pour in eight points while Brookins tallied seven points and went 3-of-4 from the free throw line. Christian Gray got into the scoring act with a 3-point play near the nine-minute mark that trimmed the USC advantage to 70-38. Onyi Eyisi knocked down the Matadors' final shot of the night with two minutes to go before USC scored the game's final seven points.
COACH TRENT JOHNSON SAID
"In the first half, the thing that was disappointing for me was we had good shots, and with a team like this, you have to knock them down to stay within striking distance, but we took some bad shots when we were down 13, they ran out on us and we stopped competing. We've talked about it, when things get tough, we have to stay together, you've got to compete and dig. There was a five-minute period there where I really struggled with that and it had to be addressed. When you look at the second half, we played them well, we ran our stuff and we were able to guard them at times. [USC] is a basketball team that's very battle-tested, very experienced and they don't care if they are up 20, they are going to try to beat you by 50. So the second half was encouraging because we had some guys that came in and competed.
GAME NOTES
Four Matadors made their team debut on Tuesday with Hardy making his first start with CSUN in his first game. Hardy finished with seven points and three assists while Gray had five points and Eyisi chipped in with four points. Darius Beane played 19 minutes off the bench and picked up an assist.
Brown moved into the Matadors' all-time top-10 list for career steals in the game. After collecting two steals, Brown moved ahead of Josh Greene (2010-14) for 10th place, giving the senior point guard 129 for his career. Brown also started his 87th straight game with CSUN.
UP NEXT
CSUN visits Notre Dame on Saturday at 9 a.m PST. The game will stream on the ACC Network Extra while Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister will be on the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
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#UniteTheValley
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