Matadors Suffer 68-54 Defeat at North Dakota State

FARGO, N.D.---CSUN Men's Basketball (3-6) fell at North Dakota State 68-54 on Friday at the Scheels Center. Onyi Eyisi scored a career-high 19 points to go with seven rebounds while Atin Wright posted 17 points and five rebounds. CSUN closed a 13-point deficit to five with less than nine minutes to play before the Bison finished the game on a 16-7 run.

The Bison shot 45.0 percent from the field while the Matadors were held to 33.9 percent shooting. From 3-point range, NDSU made 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) and CSUN converted on 4-of-19 attempts (21.1 percent). The Bison finished 9-of-11 at the free throw line (81.8 percent) compared to the Matadors who went 8-of-12 (66.7 percent). North Dakota State held a sizeable advantage in the rebounding department at 48-31.

GAME BREAKDOWN
Both sides surged offensively as the Matadors made six of their first 10 shots while the Bison hit 7-of-11 to start the game. Darius Beane's jumper at the 12:47 mark cut the deficit to 17-13. Fidelis Okereke would pick up a steal moments later but Elijah Hardy missed a 3-pointer that would have brought CSUN to within a point. The Bison would counter with an 11-3 run that was capped by a Rocky Kreuser layup to extend to a 12-point advantage.

CSUN went scoreless for six minutes late in the first half but Wright would get the Matadors' offense back on track with seven points over the final 1:54 of the period. Wright ended the half with two made free throws to pull the Matadors to within 32-25 at intermission.

Eyisi made the first basket to kick off the second half but the Bison's Grant Nelson scored the next seven points to quickly put CSUN into a 39-27 hole. The Matadors though showed fight in the second half behind Eyisi and Wright and continued to chip away at North Dakota State's lead. Eyisi converted on a traditional 3-point play before Wright knocked down a long-range trey the made it a 47-40 game. Wright found the bottom of the net again at the 11:09 mark of the second half followed by a 3-pointer from Kailen Rains, which trimmed the Bison lead to 51-45.

After an Eyisi basket pulled the Matadors to within five with 8:40 to play, CSUN went cold from the field, missing eight consecutive shots and going scoreless for over five minutes. The Bison took control of the game during the CSUN scoring drought and completed a 10-0 run to extend to a 15-point lead. The Matadors were unable to close the gap in the final minutes as North Dakota State led by as many as 19 points down the stretch.

GAME NOTES
Eyisi's 19 points eclipsed his previous career-best mark of 17 points that he scored while with Fordham in Jan. 2020. He has now scored in double figures in three-straight games. Wright made both of his free throw attempts in the contest and has hit all 21 of his attempts to start the season.

Christian Gray missed Saturday's game after playing the Matadors' first eight contests.

For North Dakota State, the duo of Kreuser and Nelson had 18 points apiece. Kreuser also added 14 rebounds.

ACCORDING TO COACH TRENT JOHNSON
"North Dakota State is a good basketball team but it's hard to win a Division I basketball game when you get outrebounded like we did, 48-31 and shoot the percentages that we shot. I can't fault our effort. I thought there was a period there where we were down six or seven and took some ill-advised shots. When you are in that position, you have to be smart and you have to do exactly what we ask you to do as coaches, and that is execute."

UP NEXT
CSUN will return to action in eight days on Dec. 18 against Portland State at The Matadome. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.

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Team Stats

Onyi Eyisi

Atin Wright

Elijah Hardy

Fidelis Okereke

Players Mentioned

Darius Beane

Onyi Eyisi

Christian Gray

Elijah Hardy

Fidelis Okereke

Kailen Rains

Atin Wright