Saturday, January 28
Irvine, Calif.
6:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
4-18,1-10Big West
56
at
81
UC Irvine
14-7,7-2Big West
1
2
F
CSUN
24
32
56
UC Irvine
31
50
81
Photo by: Connor Clark
Matadors Drop Contest at UC Irvine
1/28/2023 8:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball
IRVINE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball fell to UC Irvine 81-56 on Saturday at the Bren Events Center. Atin Wright topped the Matadors with 19 points while Cam Slaymaker added 12 points off the bench. UCI broke open a seven-point game at halftime with an early second-half run and led by double digits the rest of the way.
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The first half began with five consecutive made shots from the Anteaters as the Matadors trailed 12-4 early in the contest. Devin Tillis gave the Anteaters a lift with 11 early points including three made baskets from long range as his three at the 11:02 mark put CSUN behind 21-7. The Matadors were held to 31.3 shooting from the floor in the opening stanza while UCI led for the nearly the whole period.
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After going without a field goal for almost five minutes, Slaymaker ended the scoring drought with a jumper. Despite the tough shooting, the Matadors were able to stay within striking distance behind a 20-15 edge in rebounding while they collected nine offensive rebounds. De'Sean Allen-Eikens crashed the boards for an offensive rebound leading to two points that brought CSUN to within 26-16. Late in the half, CSUN picked up two offensive boards resulting in Dearon Tucker making a mid-range shot, cutting the UCI lead to 31-24 at the break.
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Out of intermission, the Matadors forced a UCI turnover but would commit a costly turnover on their end leading to a DJ Davis 3-pointer. Allen-Eikens converted on the Matadors' first field goal of the second half at the 14:50 mark but by that time UCI had completed a 17-2 run. Wright scored four in a row at the free throw line to cut the UCI lead under 20 points but a 7-0 Anteater run, capped by an Andre Henry basket, extended the lead further to 58-32.
The lead swelled to as big as 34 points with 3:35 left to play before the Matadors' bench finished the game in strong fashion. Lamine Niang found the bottom of the net on a second-chance layup while Arman Pezeshkian also converted on a late hoop. The Matadors ended the game on a 10-2 run as Slaymaker closed the scoring on the night with two late free throws.
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GAME NOTES
CSUN (4-18, 1-10 Big West) finished shooting 31.0 percent from the floor while it made 17-of-25 at the free throw line (68.0 percent) and 3-of-16 from the 3-point range (18.8 percent). On the flip side, UC Irvine (14-7, 7-2 Big West) shot an even 50.0 percent for the night to go with 9-of-20 shooting from three (45.0 percent) and 20-of-24 from the free throw line (83.3 percent). The Anteaters held a 36-34 edge over the Matadors in the rebounding department.
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Fidelis Okereke pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with four blocks and two points. De'Sean Allen-Eikens added eight points, four rebounds and three steals. Off the bench, Arman Pezeshkian had five points and two assists in just two minutes of play. Dionte Bostick missed his first game of the season.
For UCI, Devin Tillis scored a team-high 18 points.
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ACCORDING TO COACH TRENT JOHNSON
"They're very good. I thought we played extremely hard in the first half. At the start of the second half, we had three offensive possessions that weren't very good then we didn't get to the tail end of our offense and make good decisions, and it snowed ball from there. We had four assists and 16 turnovers. I'd like to think eight of them were us and eight were caused by them. Let's don't split hairs here, that's a good basketball team."
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UP NEXT
The Matadors are off until next Saturday, Feb. 4 when they host UC Santa Barbara at Premier America Credit Union Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are the call beginning at 6:50 p.m. at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
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#UniteTheValley
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The first half began with five consecutive made shots from the Anteaters as the Matadors trailed 12-4 early in the contest. Devin Tillis gave the Anteaters a lift with 11 early points including three made baskets from long range as his three at the 11:02 mark put CSUN behind 21-7. The Matadors were held to 31.3 shooting from the floor in the opening stanza while UCI led for the nearly the whole period.
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After going without a field goal for almost five minutes, Slaymaker ended the scoring drought with a jumper. Despite the tough shooting, the Matadors were able to stay within striking distance behind a 20-15 edge in rebounding while they collected nine offensive rebounds. De'Sean Allen-Eikens crashed the boards for an offensive rebound leading to two points that brought CSUN to within 26-16. Late in the half, CSUN picked up two offensive boards resulting in Dearon Tucker making a mid-range shot, cutting the UCI lead to 31-24 at the break.
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Out of intermission, the Matadors forced a UCI turnover but would commit a costly turnover on their end leading to a DJ Davis 3-pointer. Allen-Eikens converted on the Matadors' first field goal of the second half at the 14:50 mark but by that time UCI had completed a 17-2 run. Wright scored four in a row at the free throw line to cut the UCI lead under 20 points but a 7-0 Anteater run, capped by an Andre Henry basket, extended the lead further to 58-32.
The lead swelled to as big as 34 points with 3:35 left to play before the Matadors' bench finished the game in strong fashion. Lamine Niang found the bottom of the net on a second-chance layup while Arman Pezeshkian also converted on a late hoop. The Matadors ended the game on a 10-2 run as Slaymaker closed the scoring on the night with two late free throws.
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GAME NOTES
CSUN (4-18, 1-10 Big West) finished shooting 31.0 percent from the floor while it made 17-of-25 at the free throw line (68.0 percent) and 3-of-16 from the 3-point range (18.8 percent). On the flip side, UC Irvine (14-7, 7-2 Big West) shot an even 50.0 percent for the night to go with 9-of-20 shooting from three (45.0 percent) and 20-of-24 from the free throw line (83.3 percent). The Anteaters held a 36-34 edge over the Matadors in the rebounding department.
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Fidelis Okereke pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with four blocks and two points. De'Sean Allen-Eikens added eight points, four rebounds and three steals. Off the bench, Arman Pezeshkian had five points and two assists in just two minutes of play. Dionte Bostick missed his first game of the season.
For UCI, Devin Tillis scored a team-high 18 points.
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ACCORDING TO COACH TRENT JOHNSON
"They're very good. I thought we played extremely hard in the first half. At the start of the second half, we had three offensive possessions that weren't very good then we didn't get to the tail end of our offense and make good decisions, and it snowed ball from there. We had four assists and 16 turnovers. I'd like to think eight of them were us and eight were caused by them. Let's don't split hairs here, that's a good basketball team."
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UP NEXT
The Matadors are off until next Saturday, Feb. 4 when they host UC Santa Barbara at Premier America Credit Union Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are the call beginning at 6:50 p.m. at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
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#UniteTheValley
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Team Stats
CSUN
Irvine
FG%
.310
.500
3FG%
.188
.450
FT%
.680
.833
RB
34
36
TO
16
15
STL
8
10
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
19
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
12
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
5
FGM
1
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
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