Wednesday, February 15
Davis, Calif.
6:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
6-20,3-12Big West
62
at
73
UC Davis
15-11,8-6Big West
1
2
F
CSUN
34
28
62
UC Davis
39
34
73
Wright Sets New D1 Scoring Record but Matadors Fall at UC Davis
2/15/2023 9:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
DAVIS, Calif.--- Atin Wright recorded a new CSUN Division I school scoring record with 42 points, but the Matadors dropped a hard-fought 73-62 decision to UC Davis on Wednesday at the University Credit Union Center.
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After the Aggies began the game on a 6-0 run, Wright scored the first of his seven threes at the 17:13 mark of the first half. In the early minutes of the game, Wright connected on his first four three-point attempts to give the Matadors a 14-10 lead. The 6-1 guard gave the Aggie defenders fits throughout the night as Wright continued to drain shot after shot including a jumper near the midway mark of the period for an 18-15 CSUN lead.
The Aggies though also shot the ball well in the opening stanza, finishing at a 53.6 percent clip after 20 minutes. An 8-2 run gave the Aggies a 23-20 lead with 5:37 left before halftime. Kane Milling would drill a three a minute later before Elijah Pepper found his way to the free throw line to extend the lead to six. UC Davis connected on its final three shots of the first half including a four-point play from Pepper to take a 39-34 lead into halftime.
Wright ended up scoring the Matadors' final 14 points of the first half, finishing with 28 points at the break. However, at the start of the second half, the Aggies scored the first six points to quickly extend its lead to double digits. With Wright defended by sometimes two and three defenders, the Matadors would get scoring from De'Sean Allen-Eikens, Marcel Stevens and Johnnie Walter to pull to within 48-44.
The Aggies would respond, scoring the next 11 points as the lead swelled to the biggest of the night at 15 points (59-44). Held to two points for the first 11-plus minutes of the second half, Wright completed a three-point play then went on to score nine consecutive points to close a 14-2 run that trimmed the deficit to 61-58 with four minutes left.
A comeback though was in the cards. CSUN went without a made field goal for nearly three minutes while the Aggies scored nine unanswered points. Pepper helped ice the game at the free throw line with three made free throws in the final minute to push his final scoring tally to 32 points.Â
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GAME NOTES
Wright made 14-of-25 shots on the night including a career-high seven made threes on 11 attempts. Overall, Wright's 42 points are the second-most points scored in team history with only Ollie Carter scoring more at 47 points on Feb. 1, 1966, when CSUN was a Division II program. In addition to his point total, Wright moved into 10th place on the Matadors' career 3-point field goals made list at 125.
De'Sean Allen-Eikens chipped in with nine points, five rebounds and three blocks for CSUN while Onyi Eyisi had a team-high six rebounds off the bench.
CSUN finished the night shooting 37.9 percent while the Matadors made 7-of-20 shots from 3-point range (35.0 percent) and connected on 11-of-18 attempts at the free throw line (61.1 percent). In contrast, UC Davis shot 43.9 percent for the game to go with 8-of-16 shooting from three (50.0 percent) and 15-of-22 shooting at the free throw line (68.2 percent). On the glass, the Aggies out-rebounded the Matadors 42-34.
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ACCORDING TO COACH TRENT JOHNSON
"Atin shot the ball well. He was efficient. For us, we had a great opportunity, two of their best players, Beasley and Johnson, didn't play. As a team, we didn't defend very well.
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UC Davis plays really well off two feet. When you go back and look at the tape, all the physical plays – playing off two feet, rebounding with two hands, all of those things put you in situations where you're not effective versus an established good team with hard-nosed good players."
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UP NEXT
CSUN stays on the road to take on UC San Diego on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Spectrum SportsNet. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call at GoMatadors.com/Radio starting at 6:50 p.m.
#UniteTheValley
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After the Aggies began the game on a 6-0 run, Wright scored the first of his seven threes at the 17:13 mark of the first half. In the early minutes of the game, Wright connected on his first four three-point attempts to give the Matadors a 14-10 lead. The 6-1 guard gave the Aggie defenders fits throughout the night as Wright continued to drain shot after shot including a jumper near the midway mark of the period for an 18-15 CSUN lead.
The Aggies though also shot the ball well in the opening stanza, finishing at a 53.6 percent clip after 20 minutes. An 8-2 run gave the Aggies a 23-20 lead with 5:37 left before halftime. Kane Milling would drill a three a minute later before Elijah Pepper found his way to the free throw line to extend the lead to six. UC Davis connected on its final three shots of the first half including a four-point play from Pepper to take a 39-34 lead into halftime.
Wright ended up scoring the Matadors' final 14 points of the first half, finishing with 28 points at the break. However, at the start of the second half, the Aggies scored the first six points to quickly extend its lead to double digits. With Wright defended by sometimes two and three defenders, the Matadors would get scoring from De'Sean Allen-Eikens, Marcel Stevens and Johnnie Walter to pull to within 48-44.
The Aggies would respond, scoring the next 11 points as the lead swelled to the biggest of the night at 15 points (59-44). Held to two points for the first 11-plus minutes of the second half, Wright completed a three-point play then went on to score nine consecutive points to close a 14-2 run that trimmed the deficit to 61-58 with four minutes left.
A comeback though was in the cards. CSUN went without a made field goal for nearly three minutes while the Aggies scored nine unanswered points. Pepper helped ice the game at the free throw line with three made free throws in the final minute to push his final scoring tally to 32 points.Â
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GAME NOTES
Wright made 14-of-25 shots on the night including a career-high seven made threes on 11 attempts. Overall, Wright's 42 points are the second-most points scored in team history with only Ollie Carter scoring more at 47 points on Feb. 1, 1966, when CSUN was a Division II program. In addition to his point total, Wright moved into 10th place on the Matadors' career 3-point field goals made list at 125.
De'Sean Allen-Eikens chipped in with nine points, five rebounds and three blocks for CSUN while Onyi Eyisi had a team-high six rebounds off the bench.
CSUN finished the night shooting 37.9 percent while the Matadors made 7-of-20 shots from 3-point range (35.0 percent) and connected on 11-of-18 attempts at the free throw line (61.1 percent). In contrast, UC Davis shot 43.9 percent for the game to go with 8-of-16 shooting from three (50.0 percent) and 15-of-22 shooting at the free throw line (68.2 percent). On the glass, the Aggies out-rebounded the Matadors 42-34.
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ACCORDING TO COACH TRENT JOHNSON
"Atin shot the ball well. He was efficient. For us, we had a great opportunity, two of their best players, Beasley and Johnson, didn't play. As a team, we didn't defend very well.
Â
UC Davis plays really well off two feet. When you go back and look at the tape, all the physical plays – playing off two feet, rebounding with two hands, all of those things put you in situations where you're not effective versus an established good team with hard-nosed good players."
Â
UP NEXT
CSUN stays on the road to take on UC San Diego on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Spectrum SportsNet. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call at GoMatadors.com/Radio starting at 6:50 p.m.
#UniteTheValley
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Team Stats
CSUN
UCD
FG%
.379
.439
3FG%
.350
.500
FT%
.611
.682
RB
34
42
TO
13
14
STL
7
7
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
42
FGM
14
3FGM
7
FTM
7
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
4
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
2
FGM
1
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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