Saturday, January 20
Riverside, Calif.
5:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
13-6,4-3Big West
63
at
82
UC Riverside
8-12,3-5Big West
1
2
F
CSUN
28
35
63
UC Riverside
31
51
82
Photo by: Connor Clark
CSUN Suffers Setback at UC Riverside
1/20/2024 6:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
RIVERSIDE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball dropped an 82-63 decision to UC Riverside at the SRC Arena on Saturday. De'Sean Allen-Eikens scored a team-high 17 points while Gianni Hunt added 15 points. The Matadors would trail by three at halftime, but the Highlanders raced out to a 30-7 start to the second half and never looked back.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Gianni Hunt scored CSUN's first five points to start as CSUN led until the 16-minute mark. The Highlanders would take their first lead on an Isaiah Moses jumpshot before Jasman Sangha hit a jumper of his own to tie the game at 11-11. Sangha hit another jumper for a 16-15 advantage, but the Highlanders answered with back-to-back threes. The game remained tight with CSUN pulling to within one on two occasions before UCR pulled ahead 31-26 with 2:20 to play. Keonte Jones made the Matadors' final shot of the first half to bring CSUN to within 31-28.
The Highlanders leaned on the 3-point shot in the second half to blow the game open. UCR began the period on a 12-2 run, highlighted by a pair of threes. Jones stopped a 10-0 UCR stretch with a three, but the Highlanders hit two consecutive from long range to open the lead further. Vladimir Salaridze and Ben Griscti hit threes as well to stretch the Highlander advantage to 59-35 with 12:04 to go. CSUN trailed by as many as 26 points in the second half before a 12-3 spurt cut the deficit to 64-47. The Matadors would get as close as 16 points on a Dionte Bostick basket with 4:50 to play but could not get closer the rest of the way.Â
NOTES OF THE GAME
"They shot it great. They played great. Isaiah Moses went 8-for-11 [from three]. Great night for them.
"We've got a lot of work to do. Just defensively [we have to improve] and it's the second game in a row where we got out-rebounded. The things that have carried us are things we're not doing. We're not defending and rebounding. Teams that don't do that are going to lose."
UP NEXT
CSUN returns home to take on Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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HOW IT HAPPENED
Gianni Hunt scored CSUN's first five points to start as CSUN led until the 16-minute mark. The Highlanders would take their first lead on an Isaiah Moses jumpshot before Jasman Sangha hit a jumper of his own to tie the game at 11-11. Sangha hit another jumper for a 16-15 advantage, but the Highlanders answered with back-to-back threes. The game remained tight with CSUN pulling to within one on two occasions before UCR pulled ahead 31-26 with 2:20 to play. Keonte Jones made the Matadors' final shot of the first half to bring CSUN to within 31-28.
The Highlanders leaned on the 3-point shot in the second half to blow the game open. UCR began the period on a 12-2 run, highlighted by a pair of threes. Jones stopped a 10-0 UCR stretch with a three, but the Highlanders hit two consecutive from long range to open the lead further. Vladimir Salaridze and Ben Griscti hit threes as well to stretch the Highlander advantage to 59-35 with 12:04 to go. CSUN trailed by as many as 26 points in the second half before a 12-3 spurt cut the deficit to 64-47. The Matadors would get as close as 16 points on a Dionte Bostick basket with 4:50 to play but could not get closer the rest of the way.Â
NOTES OF THE GAME
- CSUN drops to 13-6 overall and 4-3 in Big West play while UC Riverside improves to 8-12 overall and 3-5 in conference.
- The Matadors scored a season low in points while they shot 36.9 percent for the game. In contrast, UCR shot 44.4 percent from the field
- The Highlanders feasted from 3-point range, making 17-of-32 shots (70.6 percent) while CSUN made 8-of-24 (33.3 percent).
- UCR out-rebounded CSUN 40-35 on the night.
- Mahmoud Fofana led CSUN in rebounding with nine in 24 minutes.
"They shot it great. They played great. Isaiah Moses went 8-for-11 [from three]. Great night for them.
"We've got a lot of work to do. Just defensively [we have to improve] and it's the second game in a row where we got out-rebounded. The things that have carried us are things we're not doing. We're not defending and rebounding. Teams that don't do that are going to lose."
UP NEXT
CSUN returns home to take on Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
Â
Team Stats
CSUN
UCR
FG%
.369
.444
3FG%
.333
.531
FT%
.875
.692
RB
35
40
TO
10
8
STL
4
6
Game Leaders
Pts
17
FGM
5
3FGM
3
FTM
4
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
3
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
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