Saturday, December 7
San Luis Obispo, Calif.
5:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
7-3,1-1Big West
102
at
91
Cal Poly
5-6,0-2Big West
1
2
F
CSUN
51
51
102
Cal Poly
34
57
91
Photo by: Connor Clark
CSUN Secures First Big West Win, Knocks Off Cal Poly on the Road
12/7/2024 7:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball outlasted Cal Poly 102-91 for its first Big West victory on Saturday night at Mott Athletics Center. Five Matadors scored in doubles figures with PJ Fuller II scoring a season-high 22 points with seven assists. Grady Lewis notched his first double-double as a Matador, totaling 17 points and 14 rebounds while Marcus Adams Jr. added 17 points on 7-of-11 field goals.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded leads five times in the first four-plus minutes of action before CSUN scored six unanswered for a 15-11 lead. Judson Martindale made back-to-back shots to help extend the lead while Adams completed a 6-0 run for a 21-14 advantage with 11:34 left in the first half. CSUN eventually put together a 9-0 run, closed by a Fuller three-point play for a 13-point lead. Helping the cause, Lewis gave CSUN a big lift in the first half as he scored on a putback layup with 7:54 on the clock and then scored again on a fastbreak bucket 20 seconds later to make it a 36-22 game.
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The Mustangs trimmed the deficit to 38-28 on a Guzman Vasilic three, but Lewis followed with a bucket for CSUN on the other end to slow the Cal Poly uprising. Lewis converted again on another second-chance basket at the 5:13 mark as the Matadors led 40-28. CSUN's defense held Cal Poly without a field goal over the last six-plus minutes with the Mustangs missing nine consecutive field goals over that span. Late in the half, Fuller scored on a putback of his own while Jordan Brinson made two free throws in the final seconds to put the Matadors ahead 51-34 at intermission.
CSUN constructed a 10-0 run early in the second half, turning a 14-point lead to 24 at 64-40 with 16:01 left to go. However, Cal Poly would battle back behind 3-point shooting. Vasilic quickly ended the Matadors' run with a three while Aaron Price Jr. hit a three of his own minutes later to pull the Mustangs to within 68-49. Peter Bandelj also closed a 9-0 Mustang spurt with another 3-pointer to make it a 72-60 game. Scotty Washington slowed the run with a Matador three, but Bandelj scored the six points. Shots from Washington and Keonte Jones helped keep the Matadors ahead by double digits, but Cal Poly answered with threes from Owen Koonce and Mac Riniker to suddenly pull Cal Poly within 82-74 with 7:33 to play. CSUN still led by an eight-point margin at the four-minute mark before Koonce scored the next five to bring Cal Poly closer at 84-81 with 3:47 to go.
On CSUN's next possession, Jones picked up a key traditional three-point play before the Mustangs came up empty on the free throw line. Moments later, Adams hit a timely three to extend the lead to 90-81. Riniker picked up a Cal Poly bucket on the Mustangs' next possession, but Fuller hit a dagger three with 1:41 remaining to put CSUN ahead 93-83. Over the final 1:04, Fuller made six free throws while Washington made two of his own to keep CSUN ahead in the final seconds.
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NOTES OF THE GAME
ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"I thought our guys battled hard and played well. We've got to tune some things up, but I thought our guys defended, played with intent and rebounded the ball well. The first half was perfect, but like we've talked about, complacency can creep in and a couple calls don't go your way, and before you know it, it's a six-point game. It was great to see our guys not panic, steady the ship and push the thing back to 10 to 12 points to where it should have been in the first place. I'm proud of our guys' effort and the mentality of when they made their run, we didn't quit, we remained resilient and did enough to get the W."
UP NEXT
CSUN will take next week off for finals before returning to the road to take on USC on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. on the Big 10 Network. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded leads five times in the first four-plus minutes of action before CSUN scored six unanswered for a 15-11 lead. Judson Martindale made back-to-back shots to help extend the lead while Adams completed a 6-0 run for a 21-14 advantage with 11:34 left in the first half. CSUN eventually put together a 9-0 run, closed by a Fuller three-point play for a 13-point lead. Helping the cause, Lewis gave CSUN a big lift in the first half as he scored on a putback layup with 7:54 on the clock and then scored again on a fastbreak bucket 20 seconds later to make it a 36-22 game.
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Grady Lewis up to 10 points after the layup off a feed from Jordan Brinson. #GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/a1hlqUrFg0
— CSUN Men's Basketball (@CSUNMBB) December 8, 2024
The Mustangs trimmed the deficit to 38-28 on a Guzman Vasilic three, but Lewis followed with a bucket for CSUN on the other end to slow the Cal Poly uprising. Lewis converted again on another second-chance basket at the 5:13 mark as the Matadors led 40-28. CSUN's defense held Cal Poly without a field goal over the last six-plus minutes with the Mustangs missing nine consecutive field goals over that span. Late in the half, Fuller scored on a putback of his own while Jordan Brinson made two free throws in the final seconds to put the Matadors ahead 51-34 at intermission.
CSUN constructed a 10-0 run early in the second half, turning a 14-point lead to 24 at 64-40 with 16:01 left to go. However, Cal Poly would battle back behind 3-point shooting. Vasilic quickly ended the Matadors' run with a three while Aaron Price Jr. hit a three of his own minutes later to pull the Mustangs to within 68-49. Peter Bandelj also closed a 9-0 Mustang spurt with another 3-pointer to make it a 72-60 game. Scotty Washington slowed the run with a Matador three, but Bandelj scored the six points. Shots from Washington and Keonte Jones helped keep the Matadors ahead by double digits, but Cal Poly answered with threes from Owen Koonce and Mac Riniker to suddenly pull Cal Poly within 82-74 with 7:33 to play. CSUN still led by an eight-point margin at the four-minute mark before Koonce scored the next five to bring Cal Poly closer at 84-81 with 3:47 to go.
On CSUN's next possession, Jones picked up a key traditional three-point play before the Mustangs came up empty on the free throw line. Moments later, Adams hit a timely three to extend the lead to 90-81. Riniker picked up a Cal Poly bucket on the Mustangs' next possession, but Fuller hit a dagger three with 1:41 remaining to put CSUN ahead 93-83. Over the final 1:04, Fuller made six free throws while Washington made two of his own to keep CSUN ahead in the final seconds.
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PJ Fuller with the dagger!
— CSUN Men's Basketball (@CSUNMBB) December 8, 2024
Clutch three extends the lead back to 10. #GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/ycFXM3xHzB
NOTES OF THE GAME
- CSUN improves to 7-3 overall and 1-1 in Big West play while Cal Poly slips to 5-6 overall and 0-2 in conference.
- The Matadors shot an even 50.0 percent from the floor while making 8-of-14 threes (57.1 percent) and 20-of-29 free throws (69.0 percent). The Mustangs finished with a 41.4 shooting percentage while they made 12-of-43 threes (27.9 percent) and 21-of-30 free throws (70.0 percent).
- On the glass, CSUN out-rebounded Cal Poly 47-41.
- The Matadors also led 54-34 in points in paint.
- CSUN reached the 100-point benchmark against a Division I opponent for the first time since scoring 108 against Long Beach State on Feb. 1, 2017.
- Fuller's 22 points are one short of a career high.
- Washington also reached double figures with 16 points while Jones scored 13 points in 22 minutes of action before fouling out.
ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"I thought our guys battled hard and played well. We've got to tune some things up, but I thought our guys defended, played with intent and rebounded the ball well. The first half was perfect, but like we've talked about, complacency can creep in and a couple calls don't go your way, and before you know it, it's a six-point game. It was great to see our guys not panic, steady the ship and push the thing back to 10 to 12 points to where it should have been in the first place. I'm proud of our guys' effort and the mentality of when they made their run, we didn't quit, we remained resilient and did enough to get the W."
UP NEXT
CSUN will take next week off for finals before returning to the road to take on USC on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. on the Big 10 Network. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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Team Stats
CSUN
CPO
FG%
.500
.414
3FG%
.571
.279
FT%
.690
.700
RB
47
41
TO
12
17
STL
11
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
22
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
8
Pts
17
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
17
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballF/C
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG/F
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