Thursday, January 23
Northridge, Calif.
7:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
13-6,5-3Big West
86
vs
76
Long Beach State
7-13,3-5Big West
1
2
F
Long Beach St.
35
41
76
CSUN
57
29
86
Photo by: Connor Clark
CSUN Defeats Long Beach State Behind Six in Double Figures
1/23/2025 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---Behind a balanced scoring attack, CSUN Men's Basketball collected an 86-76 victory over Long Beach State on Thursday evening at Premier America Credit Union Arena. Six Matadors scored in double figures with Scotty Washington leading the way with 19 points while Marcus Adams Jr. added 17 points and the tandem of Keonte Jones and PJ Fuller II had 12 apiece. Off the bench, both Tyler Beard and Grady Lewis scored 10 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
CSUN set the tone at the outset as Adams picked up a dunk just three seconds into the game to give the Matadors the early lead. The Beach connected for their first two threes to lead 6-4, however, the Matadors made their first six field goal attempts, including three consecutive from long range for a 15-6 lead. Beard came off the bench and made back-to-back threes as the lead quickly grew to 21-8 with 15:12 left in the first half.
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In the early stages of the game, Adams connected on his first five baskets with three coming from long range. The Beach would soon pull to within 27-19 at the 10-minute mark before Adams sank a three to push the lead back to double digits. Both teams found success from distance in the first half as the Beach made three straight from long range during a stretch, closing the gap to 36-28, but CSUN had an answer seemingly on its side of the court each time. Beginning at the six-minute mark, CSUN went on a 10-0 run with all five of its field goals scored in the paint. That run was closed by a frenetic sequence where Lewis scored on an offensive rebound then Beard picked up a steal off the inbound pass and scored an easy layup. The Matadors scored the final six points of the first half, extending to a 57-35 lead on a late Beard jumper.
CSUN kept up its play on offense by recording the first six points to start the second half with Washington giving CSUN a 63-35 lead on a breakaway layup. Lewis would score inside for a CSUN 67-40 advantage with 15:50 remaining, but the Beach would not go away quietly. Long Beach State quickly executed a 10-0 run, highlighted by two consecutive threes from TJ Wainwright. With 12:25 to play, Wainwright drilled another to suddenly pull the Beach to within 69-54. The lead slipped to 13 points before Washington connected for a four-point play to push the lead to 75-58 with 9:47 to go.
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Long Beach State though kept on battling down the stretch. Threes from Wainwright and later Devin Askew cut the CSUN lead to 81-71 with 6:05 remaining. Mahmoud Fofana gave CSUN some breathing room with a big dunk after CSUN broke the full court press. Moments later, Fuller drilled a three to stretch the lead back to 86-71. A Kam Martin jumper cut the CSUN advantage to 13 with 3:47 left, but the Matadors only allowed one field goal the rest of the way. CSUN forced two turnovers over that span to secure the win.
NOTES OF THE GAME
ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"[The defense] was great. We've got to figure out how to finish games better. We get really complacent when we're up. I didn't see that in Hawai'i. We played with that chip all the way through. We lost it today and we've got to get back to who we are for 40 minutes. I'm disappointed in how we finished it, but I guess that's a good thing. If you're up 20 and then not happy that they cut it to 10 -- I'd rather be on that side than the other."
UP NEXT
CSUN faces a road test on Saturday evening at UC San Diego. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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HOW IT HAPPENED
CSUN set the tone at the outset as Adams picked up a dunk just three seconds into the game to give the Matadors the early lead. The Beach connected for their first two threes to lead 6-4, however, the Matadors made their first six field goal attempts, including three consecutive from long range for a 15-6 lead. Beard came off the bench and made back-to-back threes as the lead quickly grew to 21-8 with 15:12 left in the first half.
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Back-to-back three-pointers from Tyler Beard.
— CSUN Men's Basketball (@CSUNMBB) January 24, 2025
21-8 CSUN. ??#GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/5U2JvcQqDJ
In the early stages of the game, Adams connected on his first five baskets with three coming from long range. The Beach would soon pull to within 27-19 at the 10-minute mark before Adams sank a three to push the lead back to double digits. Both teams found success from distance in the first half as the Beach made three straight from long range during a stretch, closing the gap to 36-28, but CSUN had an answer seemingly on its side of the court each time. Beginning at the six-minute mark, CSUN went on a 10-0 run with all five of its field goals scored in the paint. That run was closed by a frenetic sequence where Lewis scored on an offensive rebound then Beard picked up a steal off the inbound pass and scored an easy layup. The Matadors scored the final six points of the first half, extending to a 57-35 lead on a late Beard jumper.
CSUN kept up its play on offense by recording the first six points to start the second half with Washington giving CSUN a 63-35 lead on a breakaway layup. Lewis would score inside for a CSUN 67-40 advantage with 15:50 remaining, but the Beach would not go away quietly. Long Beach State quickly executed a 10-0 run, highlighted by two consecutive threes from TJ Wainwright. With 12:25 to play, Wainwright drilled another to suddenly pull the Beach to within 69-54. The lead slipped to 13 points before Washington connected for a four-point play to push the lead to 75-58 with 9:47 to go.
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?? FOUR-POINT PLAY ??
— CSUN Men's Basketball (@CSUNMBB) January 24, 2025
Scotty Washington is up to 15 points tonight as CSUN builds its lead back up to 17.#GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/OsR9fsWv50
Long Beach State though kept on battling down the stretch. Threes from Wainwright and later Devin Askew cut the CSUN lead to 81-71 with 6:05 remaining. Mahmoud Fofana gave CSUN some breathing room with a big dunk after CSUN broke the full court press. Moments later, Fuller drilled a three to stretch the lead back to 86-71. A Kam Martin jumper cut the CSUN advantage to 13 with 3:47 left, but the Matadors only allowed one field goal the rest of the way. CSUN forced two turnovers over that span to secure the win.
NOTES OF THE GAME
- CSUN improves to 13-6 overall and 5-3 in Big West play while Long Beach State slips to 7-13 overall and 3-5 in conference.
- The Matadors shot 51.4 percent for the night while making 8-of-22 from three (36.4 percent) and 6-of-7 from the free throw line. Long Beach State finished shooting at 48.1 percent while hitting 13-of-27 from three (48.1 percent) and 13-of-15 from the free throw line (86.7 percent).
- CSUN controlled the glass, out-rebounding the Beach 39-23. The Matadors also led in points in the paint, 48-24.
- Jones totaled a team-high eight rebounds while Lewis chipped in with seven. Both Jones and Fuller had a team-high five assists.
- Adams made a team-best three field goals from distance on five attempts while he was 7-of-12 from the floor overall.
- CSUN notched its first home win over Long Beach State since Jan. 8, 2020.
ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"[The defense] was great. We've got to figure out how to finish games better. We get really complacent when we're up. I didn't see that in Hawai'i. We played with that chip all the way through. We lost it today and we've got to get back to who we are for 40 minutes. I'm disappointed in how we finished it, but I guess that's a good thing. If you're up 20 and then not happy that they cut it to 10 -- I'd rather be on that side than the other."
UP NEXT
CSUN faces a road test on Saturday evening at UC San Diego. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister have the call in an audio broadcast at GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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Team Stats
LBSU
CSUN
FG%
.481
.514
3FG%
.481
.364
FT%
.867
.857
RB
23
39
TO
15
12
STL
8
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
19
FGM
7
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
17
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's BasketballG/F
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