CSUN Opens Big West Play with 87-66 Victory Over Bakersfield

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---Behind a career-high 27 points from Larry Hughes II, CSUN Men's Basketball knocked off Cal State Bakersfield 87-66 on Thursday at Premier America Credit Union Arena. Four total Matadors scored in doubles figures as the trio of Mahmoud Fofana, Josiah Davis and Joshua O'Garro added 15 points each in the victory. CSUN shot 57.7 percent in the second half and never trailed in the period, leading by as many as 22 points down the stretch.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Roadrunners raced out to a 10-4 lead before battling back to even the game at 14-14 on a layup from Grady Lewis. Hughes drained a three moments later, completing a 7-0 run for a CSUN three-point lead (17-14) at the 9:46 mark. After falling behind 24-19, Bakersfield briefly took a 27-26 lead, but CSUN answered with a 9-0 run, capped by another three from Hughes. A Davis three-point play followed by a Fofana layup, set up by Davis, pushed the lead to double digits for the first time at 42-32. Fofana closed the half with a late free throw as the Matadors held the Roadrunners scoreless over the last two-plus minutes to take a 44-32 lead into halftime.

CSUN opened the second half with a three from Davius Loury to extend to a 47-32 edge, however, Bakersfield roared back with a 13-2 run to suddenly pull to within 49-45 with 15:29 to play. Davis gave CSUN a much needed hoop then the Matadors picked up two free throws from Hughes and a layup from Lewis to extend to a 55-45 advantage. The lead would slip to 55-50 on a CJ Hardy layup with 12:38 on the clock, but the Matadors would go on to hold the Roadrunners without a field goal over the next five-plus minutes. Meanwhile, CSUN posted a 15-3 run, capped by a thunderous Fofana dunk to lead 70-53 with 7:52 to go. CSUN would not let its lead slip less than 13 points the rest of the way as late dunks from Hughes and Davis punctuated a 21-point victory.

NOTES OF THE GAME

CSUN improves to 4-4 overall and 1-0 in Big West play while Cal State Bakersfield slips to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in conference.
The Matadors shot 53.1 percent for the night while going 6-of-21 from three (28.6 percent) and 13-of-25 from the free throw line (52.0 percent. In contrast, CSUB shot 35.0 percent overall while making 5-of-20 threes (25.0 percent) and 19-of-24 free throws (79.2 percent).
CSUN out-rebounded Bakersfield 40-37. The Matadors also led 33-11 in points off turnovers and 52-26 in points in the paint.
Hughes added six rebounds, five assists and four steals to his stat line while he made 5-of-12 from 3-point range.
O'Garro nearly finished with a double-double, posting nine rebounds while going 7-of-11 from the floor.
Davis had eight assists and made 6-of-12 from the field.
Loury finished with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting before fouling out.

ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"Mission accomplished. We played great on the defensive side of the ball. If you want to be good in this game, that's what you got to concentrate on. It's good to see their response [after Friday's loss to Idaho State]. That's a good basketball team right there, we didn't show that in Idaho. We showed it tonight and we showed it against Troy. If we keep focused on that, we're going to be a tough out."

UP NEXT
CSUN hits the road for a Saturday night matchup with UC Irvine. 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 and the Varsity app.

#GoMatadors

CSUN Opens Big West Play with 87-66 Victory Over Bakersfield

Next Event

Team Stats

Larry Hughes II

Josiah Davis

Joshua O'Garro

Mahmoud Fofana

Players Mentioned

Josiah Davis

Mahmoud Fofana

Larry Hughes II

Grady Lewis

Davius Loury

Joshua O'Garro