As the season has progressed, the Matadors’ defensive effort has improved in such manner that at times it has pleased the sometimes-seemingly-unpleasable Bobby Braswell. Even as the Matadors lost by 46 points at Cal Poly on Jan. 21, Braswell showed satisfaction over his team’s effort and scrappiness. Fast-forwarding to late Thursday night, however, it was safe to say a lot of the fulfillment the coach felt about his young team went out the window during an 85-70 loss against UC… Read more

Going down the wire in a seesaw battle between teams in the opposite poles of the Big West Conference standings Thursday night, it was Cal State Fullerton’s turn at attempting to swing up on the scoreboard, and guard Kwame Vaughn delivered with a head-first driving layup to put his team up two. Given only 3.8 seconds to shoot back, the Matadors were in a dangerous territory. Even more so because they were out of timeouts. “We lost some timeouts I… Read more

Westwood – Despite just having gotten swept emphatically by No. 3 UCLA, CSUN outside hitter Julius Hoefer showed a lot of conviction in expressing most of the credit for the Bruins’ victory Wednesday night belonged to the Matadors. “They (the Bruins) didn’t really beat us, we beat ourselves,” said Hoefer, who led the Matadors with nine kills during the 25-18, 25-15, 25-12 Mountain Paficic Sports Federation loss at the John Wooden Center. “We were passing badly, we didn’t kill anymore…. Read more

A mistake-filled first set gave the impression the Matadors would be in for a long night (or a very short one) against No. 8 Long Beach State Friday night at the Matadome. On its way to a 25-15 first-set loss, CSUN had practically given the frame away by recording eight serving errors. “Missing serves is a momentum killer,” CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell said. But momentum can be revived. Despite virtually spotting the 49ers a 1-0 lead, the Matadors settled… Read more

CSUN guard Josh Greene has seen what the Matadors are capable of doing when they click. Thursday night against UC Irvine, he saw it again. But for only one half. Again. “If we put together two halves, then we can be pretty good,” Greene said. What was a tale of two different halves against the Anteaters was the tale of the season for the Matadors, who lost 71-62 at the Matadome. CSUN dug itself a big hole to start the… Read more

There were less than 20 minutes to go until tip-off of what eventually became a 99-58 CSUN win over Pacifica College Saturday night at the Matadome when CSUN head coach Bobby Braswell received some alarming news. Pacifica didn’t have enough players to start the game. “They were telling me, ‘Coach, they only got four players here.’” Braswell said. “My stomach was turning.” Fortunately for the sake of Braswell’s nerves, two more players made it just in time (driving themselves, it… Read more

Redshirt sophomore guard Stephan Hicks scored a game-high 18 points as CSUN snapped a three-game losing streak with a 73-70 road win over Pepperdine at Firestone Fieldhouse Saturday night. CSUN guard Josh Greene scored all 15 of his points after halftime, helping the Matadors turn a 12-point first-half deficit into a rousing victory. The Matadors (2-6) trailed 24-16 after a layup by Pepperdine’s Taylor Darby with 6:01 left in the period. The Matadors went into halftime trailing 30-24. Less than four… Read more

SANTA CLARA – As it’s been the theme for the whole season, 3-pointers weren’t falling for the Matadors Saturday night at the Leavey Center. There were less than three minutes left in the second half and CSUN had only made a single 3-pointer for the period. The Matadors, however, remained unfazed and kept heaving them up. The attempts only resulted in added scratches to the Santa Clara hoops. “It’s kind of like that with the confidence,” CSUN guard Vinnie McGhee said…. Read more

The Matadors (16-13) wrapped up their best season in seven years with a non-conference sweep over visiting Air Force (3-27) Friday afternoon at the Matadome. CSUN, for the most part, made quick work of the Falcons in the first two sets before having to rally back in the third to get its sixth home sweep of the season. The Matadors were up 9-5 in the final frame before Air Force turned the tables on them and outscored them 18-11 to… Read more