CSUN Falls on the Road at UC San Diego

LA JOLLA, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball dropped an 83-62 decision to first-place UC San Diego on Thursday night at LionTree Arena. De'Sean Allen-Eikens scored a team-high 19 points while Dearon Tucker added 11 points and seven rebounds. CSUN would be unable to slow down a hot shooting Triton team that made 16 threes on the night.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Dearon Tucker gave CSUN an early lift with 3-of-3 shooting from the field to help the Matadors to a 10-9 lead in the early going. The Tritons would take the lead with an 8-2 run, but the Matadors fought back to within 20-18 on a layup from De'Sean Allen-Eikens at the 9:46 mark of the first half. However, that field goal would be CSUN's last made shot for nearly the next eight minutes. The Matadors missed 13 consecutive attempts during that eight-minute stretch, allowing the Tritons to build their lead. While making just 5-of-14 shots during that span, UCSD did extend to a 32-18 on a 12-0 run. After a pair of Allen-Eikens baskets late, the Tritons hit a three to end the first half to take a 37-23 lead to intermission.

Bryce Pope, who had one point in the first half, scored every point in a Triton 8-1 run to open the second half. Moments later though CSUN scored six-consecutive points to trim a 21-point deficit to 15 as Jasman Sangha made a pair of baskets in the run. Pope stopped that scoring run with another three to start an 8-3 spurt for UC San Diego. Still not going away, CSUN again fought back with a 5-0 run to pull to within 53-38 with 11:00 to play. However, UCSD responded once more with a long range basket, this time from Tyler McGhie. Moments later, McGhie hit two more threes while Pope sank another three of his own to extend to a 67-41 lead. The Tritons built as big a lead as 29 points at the six-minute mark before CSUN's shots began to fall down the stretch. CSUN went on a 10-0 run in the closing minutes with Dearon Tucker throwing down a late dunk, but it would not be enough to catch the Tritons.

NOTES OF THE GAME

CSUN falls to 13-9 overall and 4-6 in Big West play while UC San Diego improves to 15-7 overall and 9-1 in conference.
The Matadors shot 38.3 percent for the game while making 3-of-12 from 3-point range (25.0 percent) and 13-of-20 free throws (65.0 percent). UCSD was boosted by 55 percent shooting in the second half to finish with a 45.3 field goal percentage for the night.
The Tritons made 16-of-40 from three (40.0 percent).
CSUN out-rebounded UCSD 42-36 while holding a 40-26 edge in points in the paint.
Off the bench, Jasman Sangha had nine points and five rebounds.

ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"Tough night offensively for us. I thought we had some good shots but they didn't go in and that affected a little bit our defense. The effort was there but the execution wasn't what we wanted.

"[UC San Diego] is a good team, we're just going through a little funk offensively. We've lost our confidence and we've got to get it back. There's only one way to do it, which is to play your way through it, keep going and keep grinding."

UP NEXT
CSUN returns to Premier America Credit Union Arena to face UC Riverside on Saturday at 5 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.

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CSUN Falls on the Road at UC San Diego

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Team Stats

De'Sean Allen-Eikens

Dearon Tucker

Jasman Sangha

Jared Barnett

Players Mentioned

De'Sean Allen-Eikens

Jasman Sangha

Dearon Tucker

Players Mentioned

De'Sean Allen-Eikens

Jasman Sangha

Dearon Tucker