CSUN Opens Road Stretch at Sacramento State

GAME NOTES

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball (2-1) begins a road heavy stretch on Saturday when the Matadors visit Sacramento State. Tip off is slated for 5 p.m. on ESPN+. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister will have the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.

FOR STARTERS
CSUN will play its next five games to close November away from the friendly confines of Premier America Credit Union Arena. After Saturday's game at Sacramento State, the Matadors will set their sights on Thanksgiving week where CSUN travels to the state of Montana for four games. CSUN first plays in the Stew Morrill Classic, a four-team tournament hosted by the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont. The Matadors face Utah Tech in the opener of the classic before taking on Denver a day later on Nov. 25 and closing the tournament against host Montana on Nov. 27. The week will close with a Saturday afternoon matchup at Montana State in Bozeman, Mont. CSUN will not play a home game until Thursday, Dec. 5 when it opens Big West play against UC Riverside.

LAST TIME OUT
CSUN kicked off its home schedule with a 98-50 victory over Nobel University last Wednesday at Premier America Credit Union Arena. The Matadors led from nearly start to finish and by as many as 53 points in the second half. Four Matadors scored in double figures with the tandem of PJ Fuller II and Marcus Adams Jr. scoring 15 points each. Grady Lewis added 14 points while Keonte Jones posted his second-straight double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds to go with seven assists. CSUN shot 54.2 percent for the night and out-rebounded the Knights 53-24.

LEADING THE WAY
Senior Keonte Jones has led CSUN in scoring and rebounding through three games, averaging a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. Four others are scoring in double figures as sophomore Marcus Adams Jr. is scoring 12.7 points per game and junior Scotty Washington is averaging 12.0 points per game while senior PJ Fuller II and junior Grady Lewis are both totaling 10 points per game. As a team, CSUN is averaging 83.7 points per game with back-to-back 90-plus point efforts to go with 20.7 assists per game. On the glass, the Matadors have pulled down 44.3 rebounds per game thus far on the season.

SCORING IN BUNCHES
CSUN has already topped 90 points twice this season and in back-to-back games. The Matadors had not surpassed 90 points in back-to-back efforts since Jan. 2020 when they completed the feat against Saint Katherine and Long Beach State. The team's 97 points scored on Nov. 6 at Le Moyne was the Matadors' most points against a Division I opponent since tallying 99 against Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 29, 2020.

SCOUTING SACRAMENTO STATE
The Hornets are 1-2 on the young season with back-to-back losses at Fresno State (64-57) and UC San Diego (64-54) over the past week. A season ago, the Hornets went 10-24 overall with a 4-14 mark in the Big Sky Conference. The team was picked to finish 10th in the Big Sky this season by the conference head coaches and members of the media. Through three games this season, the tandem of Jacob Holt and Julian Vaughns share the team lead in scoring at 11.0 points per game while Alex Kovatchev is averaging 10.3 points. Holt and EJ Neal top the team in the rebounding department, pulling down 5.0 per game. As a team, the Hornets average 72.3 points per game while allowing opponents to score at a 57.3 clip.

Series History: CSUN leads Sacramento State 29-9 in the all-time series, but the Hornets have wins in two straight. The teams last faced off in Dec. 2018 in Northridge with Sacramento State picking up an 88-68 victory. CSUN has not played in Sacramento since a close 66-61 defeat in Dec. 2017. Prior to those two recent meetings, CSUN and Sacramento State had not played one another since both were members of the Big Sky Conference in 2001.

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CSUN Opens Road Stretch at Sacramento State

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Players Mentioned

Marcus Adams Jr.

PJ Fuller II

Keonte Jones

Grady Lewis

Scotty Washington