Thursday, February 27
Northridge, Calif.
7:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
20-8,12-5Big West
71
vs
77
UC San Diego
25-4,15-2Big West
1
2
F
UC San Diego
37
40
77
CSUN
30
41
71
Photo by: Chuck Marvel
UC San Diego Holds Off Late CSUN Rally for 77-71 Decision
2/27/2025 10:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball dropped a 77-71 heartbreaker to Big West-leading UC San Diego on Thursday evening at Premier America Credit Union Arena. Keonte Jones finished with double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds while Marcus Adams Jr. and PJ Fuller II had 14 points apiece. CSUN closed a late 13-point gap to two but could not complete the comeback against the Tritons.
HOW IT HAPPENED
CSUN got off to slow to start, making just 2-of-9 shots while UC San Diego staked to an early 8-4 lead. After a three from Justin Rochelin, CSUN erased a five-point deficit with a 6-0 run with Grady Lewis giving the Matadors a 12-11 edge. The Tritons though grabbed the lead at the 11-minute mark on a Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones layup. That bucket began a 7-0 UCSD run, pushing the lead to 18-12. The back-and-forth play continued with CSUN scoring the next five to pull to within one. Jones later pulled the Matadors to within one again at 24-23 with 5:17 left to go, but the Tritons answered by scoring the next 11 points to build their biggest lead of the first half at 35-23. CSUN would claw back in the final two minutes of the first half, picking up a 3-pointer and two free throws from Fuller to cut the deficit to 37-30 at intermission.
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Out of halftime, CSUN rallied to within one with six consecutive points as Mahmoud Fofana brought the Matadors to within 37-36. However, UCSD once again responded quickly with Tait-Jones scoring back-to-back baskets to stretch the lead to six. CSUN fell behind by eight but received a lift from Adams who hit back-to-back threes. Fuller scored in the paint off a feed from Jones then Adams drilled another three to bring CSUN to within 51-49 with 11:09 to go. The 3-point shot though kept the Tritons in front with Nordin Kapic and Hayden Gray hitting timely threes to push the lead back to double digits. Tyler McGhie added another three for a 65-52 lead with 7:16 to play.
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Despite looking up at its biggest deficit of the night, CSUN made one last push down the stretch. Jones responded with a traditional three-point play then scored moments later on a drive to the hoop. Tyler Beard added a three-point play of his own at the 5:39 mark to bring CSUN to within 65-60. The Tritons would quickly get a three from Kapic and answer a Beard layup with a three from Rochlin to stretch to a 71-62 lead. CSUN though got five straight points from Jones including a tough and-one layup to cut the gap to four. The teams traded baskets before Beard hit two big free throws to pull the Matadors to within 73-71 with 40 seconds left. However, in the play of the game, UCSD received a clutch basket from Kapic in the paint to push the lead to 75-71. A CSUN turnover moments later sealed the win for the Tritons. Â
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NOTES OF THE GAME
ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"I thought we battled hard, but I just think we didn't play very good. It's tough because it was such a great crowd, everyone coming out to support, I just wish we had our best stuff. We didn't tonight, but UC San Diego had a lot to do with that. They're a really good team and we came up short."
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UP NEXT
CSUN stays at home to face UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 5 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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HOW IT HAPPENED
CSUN got off to slow to start, making just 2-of-9 shots while UC San Diego staked to an early 8-4 lead. After a three from Justin Rochelin, CSUN erased a five-point deficit with a 6-0 run with Grady Lewis giving the Matadors a 12-11 edge. The Tritons though grabbed the lead at the 11-minute mark on a Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones layup. That bucket began a 7-0 UCSD run, pushing the lead to 18-12. The back-and-forth play continued with CSUN scoring the next five to pull to within one. Jones later pulled the Matadors to within one again at 24-23 with 5:17 left to go, but the Tritons answered by scoring the next 11 points to build their biggest lead of the first half at 35-23. CSUN would claw back in the final two minutes of the first half, picking up a 3-pointer and two free throws from Fuller to cut the deficit to 37-30 at intermission.
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Out of halftime, CSUN rallied to within one with six consecutive points as Mahmoud Fofana brought the Matadors to within 37-36. However, UCSD once again responded quickly with Tait-Jones scoring back-to-back baskets to stretch the lead to six. CSUN fell behind by eight but received a lift from Adams who hit back-to-back threes. Fuller scored in the paint off a feed from Jones then Adams drilled another three to bring CSUN to within 51-49 with 11:09 to go. The 3-point shot though kept the Tritons in front with Nordin Kapic and Hayden Gray hitting timely threes to push the lead back to double digits. Tyler McGhie added another three for a 65-52 lead with 7:16 to play.
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Despite looking up at its biggest deficit of the night, CSUN made one last push down the stretch. Jones responded with a traditional three-point play then scored moments later on a drive to the hoop. Tyler Beard added a three-point play of his own at the 5:39 mark to bring CSUN to within 65-60. The Tritons would quickly get a three from Kapic and answer a Beard layup with a three from Rochlin to stretch to a 71-62 lead. CSUN though got five straight points from Jones including a tough and-one layup to cut the gap to four. The teams traded baskets before Beard hit two big free throws to pull the Matadors to within 73-71 with 40 seconds left. However, in the play of the game, UCSD received a clutch basket from Kapic in the paint to push the lead to 75-71. A CSUN turnover moments later sealed the win for the Tritons. Â
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NOTES OF THE GAME
- CSUN drops to 20-8 overall and 12-5 in Big West play while UC San Diego improves to 25-4 overall and 15-2 in conference.
- The Matadors shot 45.5 percent from the floor while making 7-of-23 threes (30.4 percent) and 14-of-17 free throws (82.4 percent). The Tritons finished at 41.9 percent shooting while making 13-of-32 threes (40.6 percent) and 12-of-20 free throws (60.0 percent).
- CSUN had a slight edge in rebounds at 36-35.
- UCSD finished with a 21-11 edge in points off turnovers, totaling 12 steals for the night.
- CSUN has its season-high seven-game win streak snapped while UC San Diego won its 10th in a row.
- Fuller made his return to the lineup after missing the last two games with injury. He finished 4-of-9 from the floor with three assists and three rebounds.
- Beard had seven points and six assists in 22 minutes.
ACCORDING TO COACH ANDY NEWMAN
"I thought we battled hard, but I just think we didn't play very good. It's tough because it was such a great crowd, everyone coming out to support, I just wish we had our best stuff. We didn't tonight, but UC San Diego had a lot to do with that. They're a really good team and we came up short."
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UP NEXT
CSUN stays at home to face UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 5 p.m. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#GoMatadors
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Team Stats
UCSD
CSUN
FG%
.419
.455
3FG%
.406
.304
FT%
.600
.824
RB
35
36
TO
9
16
STL
12
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
20
FGM
7
3FGM
0
FTM
6
Pts
14
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Pts
14
FGM
4
3FGM
4
FTM
2
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
F
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F/C
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