CSUN Visits Hawai'i in Regular Season Finale

GAME NOTES

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball closes the regular season with a road test against Hawai'i on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. PT (7 p.m. HT). The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ while Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call at GoMatadors.com/Radio.

BIG PICTURE
CSUN (18-13, 9-10 Big West) looks to secure a possible first round bye in the 2024 Big West Championships in Henderson, Nev. With the top four seeds earning a bye into the Big West quarterfinal round, the Matadors are currently holding the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament race but just sit a half game behind fourth-seeded Hawai'i. A win over the Bows on Wednesday would give CSUN the edge in a possible tiebreaker with Hawai'i by virtue of a season sweep. However, UC Santa Barbara (8-10) and UC Riverside (8-10) are also in the hunt for the No. 4 seed.

The Matadors have already secured their first winning season in 15 years in 2023-24. CSUN's 18 wins this season are the program's most in 16 years while the nine conference wins are the most since 2020. The team has also won nine road games for the first time since the 2007-08 season. Head coach Andy Newman has also become the winningest first-year head coach in CSUN Men's Basketball history this year.

LAST TIME OUT
CSUN dropped its final two home games of the regular season last week. The Matadors fell to conference-leading UC Irvine 89-64 before dropping a Senior Night match-up with UC San Diego, 79-69. Dionte Bostick led CSUN with 20 points in the loss to UC Irvine while Keonte Jones topped the team in scoring 19 against UCSD. CSUN held a lead at halftime against UC San Diego, but could not slow down a hot-shooting Triton team that shot above 48 percent in the second half.

RECORD-BREAKING YEAR ON THE BOARDS
CSUN has not only climbed to the top of The Big West in multiple rebounding categories throughout the year, but the program has also done the same in the school's record book. Entering their final regular season game, the Matadors have already broken the school Division I record for total rebounds (1,246). CSUN also set a new school record in total defensive rebounds (876) and posted its second-best rebounding average in its D-1 history (40.2). The Matadors top the conference and rank 14th nationally in overall rebounds per game while they are first in defensive rebounds per game (28.3) and rebounding margin (+5.7).

BIG WEST LEADERBOARDS
In what has been a career season for De'Sean Allen-Eikens, the senior enters play this week ranked fifth in The Big West in scoring at 18.0 points. Dionte Bostick has also posted a career-best scoring average this season, posting 15.3 points to rank 10th-best in the conference. On the rebounds list, Keonte Jones is fourth at 6.9 per game while Mahmoud Fofana is 11th (5.6) and Allen-Eikens is 14th (5.2). Jones, who averages 11.3 points, is also second in the league in blocks per game (1.5) and fifth in steals per game (1.7). Gianni Hunt, who is averaging 3.9 assists per game, would rank sixth in the conference in assists but he has not played enough games to qualify.

SCOUTING HAWAI'I
The Rainbow Warriors come in with a 17-13 overall record (9-9 Big West) with wins in five of the last seven games. The team split games last week against UC Davis (75-63 loss) and UC Riverside (76-73 win). The Bows have gone 11-6 at home on the season. Noel Coleman is ranked 14th in The Big West in scoring at 13.7 points while Justin McKoy is averaging 12.0 points and Bernardo da Silva is averaging 11.6 points. In rebounding, da Silva is third in the conference at 7.0 per game. JoVon McClanahan is eighth in the league in assists per game (3.3).

Series History: Hawai'i leads CSUN 22-9 in the all-time series. The Matadors snapped a four-game skid in the series with a 76-66 win at home on Jan. 6.

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CSUN Visits Hawai'i in Regular Season Finale

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Players Mentioned

De'Sean Allen-Eikens

Dionte Bostick

Mahmoud Fofana

Gianni Hunt

Keonte Jones