Matadors Drop 68-49 Decision at UC Davis

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball (7-20, 3-11 Big West) fell to UC Davis (12-8, 5-4 Big West) 68-49 on Saturday at the University Credit Union Center. The trio of Atin Wright, Elijah Hardy and Christian Gray scored 10 points apiece to lead the Matadors. The Aggies would lead from start-to-finish, pulling away in the second half for the double-digit win.

The Matadors shot 32.2 percent from the floor while the Aggies finished shooting 41.2 percent for the game. UC Davis also made 21-of-25 free throws (84.0 percent) compared to CSUN, which made 7-of-14. The Aggies had a 39-37 rebounding edge in the game. CSUN would lead in second chance points 16-8.

GAME BREAKDOWN
The Matadors kept pace with the Aggies in the early going after making three of their first five attempts. After a Christian Gray layup that brought CSUN to within two, the Aggies countered with six in a row, capped by a basket from Elijah Pepper. The Matadors trimmed the deficit to four following field goals from Fidelis Okereke and Hardy but Pepper again answered for the Aggies. Pepper drained back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to double digits.

CSUN though was within seven points at the 8:31 mark of the first half before a five-minute dry spell gave the Aggies an opportunity to open up the lead. Ade Adebayo's 3-point play completed a 9-0 run that pushed the lead to 32-16. The Matadors ended the scoring drought with an 8-0 run of their own but the Aggies scored the final four points to take a 36-24 lead into intermission.

Wright opened up the scoring in the second half with a steal and two made free throws to cut the lead to 10 but Christian Anigwe scored the next six points for the Aggies. The Matadors struggled offensively throughout the second half, shooting under 30 percent, as CSUN could not cut into the Aggies' lead. After Miles James knocked down a 3-pointer, the Aggies orchestrated an 8-0 run to push the lead to 50-29 with 11:21 left to play.

Wright attempted to shoulder the load offensively down the stretch, scoring all 10 of his points in the second half, but a comeback was not in the cards for the Matadors. Falling behind by as many as 23 points, the Matadors went on a 10-2 run to trim the deficit to 15 points but could not pull any closer in the closing minutes.

GAME NOTES
Gray added six rebounds, three steals and two assists to go with his 10 points on the night. James contributed eight points while Okereke pulled down a team-high nine rebounds off the bench. Wright has now scored in double figures in nine-straight games and in 22 of 26 games overall this season.

For the Aggies, Anigwe scored a game-high 20 points to go with with eight rebounds while Pepper scored 15 points.

ACCORDING TO COACH TRENT JOHNSON
"[UC Davis] is very good, they play very hard and cause a lot of problems for us because they pass and catch it so well. I thought they did a really good job of shading a man-and-a-half on Atin and making it really tough on him. Other guys have to step up and make shots and plays. When you look at the numbers and stats offensively, we've got to make shots. Again, [UC Davis] is good, they're experienced, they've been together for a while and just a really good basketball team."

UP NEXT
CSUN completes the road portion of its schedule on Tuesday against UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.

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Team Stats

Elijah Hardy

Atin Wright

Christian Gray

Miles James

Players Mentioned

Christian Gray

Elijah Hardy

Miles James

Fidelis Okereke

Atin Wright