With conference play around the corner, the Matadors (2-8) tried to snap their seven-game losing streak against the Loyola Marymount Lions (5-6), but came up just short and fell 77-74.
It was a pretty balanced offensive attack for CSUN. Six Matadors finished with at least eight points, led by forward Talo Li-Uperesa, who put up an efficient 18 points on 6-8 shooting from the field, all while grabbing six rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
Everyone chipped in for the Matadors, but the offense was stagnant at times, as CSUN struggled trying to make LMU’s defense move. Amiyah Ferguson tried to penetrate the most of any Matadors, but struggled to open up the floor for her teammates due to her lack of efficiency.
“We just have to make sure we’re still flowing, making sure we’re finding each other,” Ferguson said.
The freshman from South Carolina scored 12 points on 4-13 shooting from the field, and buried three triples on eight attempts, though two of them came at the end when it was too little too late.
For the Lions, senior guard Sydney Gandy buried a pair of threes early to get things underway, but it was fellow senior Soufia Inoussa who led the way with 19 points on 5-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Senior forward Alexis Mark, who leads the team in scoring with 11.7 points per game, shot 3-6 from downtown against the Matadors. With two players shooting at least 50% from three, the Lions were almost impossible to cool down.
“Defensively, guarding ball screens, our defensive assignments were to go over the screens, and basically just running them off the three-point line,” Ferguson said. “They hit a lot of threes today, but the goal was to run them off the three-point line.”
The Lions shot 12/29 from downtown as a team, but even when they missed, they crashed the glass to try and make the Matadors pay each possession. LMU outrebounded CSUN 13-5 offensively, and scored 11 second chance points as a result.
“I don’t think it’s rocket science,” Head Coach Carlene Mitchell said. “I think it’s just cleaning up the continued little things. It’s hard to win games when you’re not rebounding and giving people second, third opportunities on the offensive side of things.”
CSUN led 8-5 early after scoring on each of their first four possessions, but the Lions went on a 12-0 run, and never surrendered the advantage.
LMU took a double-digit lead on two occasions, but the Matadors managed to get it down to one possession both times, only for the Lions to keep the game out of reach with their three-point shooting.
The Matadors whittled their deficit down to five with just under four minutes left, but a pair of threes from Inoussa put the Lions up by nine.
CSUN was forced to play the foul game, and managed to cut it to two with four seconds left when Ferguson, who had been struggling offensively all game, buried a couple contested threes.
The Matadors fouled one more time, and guard Daylee Dunn only made her first free throw. Out of time outs, the Matadors had to sprint down the court after grabbing the rebound. Laney Amundsen passed it ahead to Ferguson, who missed her half court heave at the buzzer.
Defensively, the Matadors had spurts throughout the game when they locked in, forcing turnovers through their full court press, but for the most part, the Lions were able to beat CSUN in transition as the Matadors were too slow to get back on defense.
“Basketball’s a game of mistakes, so we’re not going to be perfect, but we just have to lock in and not make the same mistakes throughout the game,” Mitchell said.
One promising sign for the Matadors is the return of forward Kayanna Spriggs to the starting lineup after she played limited minutes for personal reasons last game. The junior from San Diego scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and secured a steal and a block in about 28 minutes of play. She didn’t get many touches, but made the most of them when she got the ball, and added some aggressiveness down low for the Matadors.
“That’s just Kay’s personality,” Mitchell said. “We always know that she’s going to play extremely hard, she’s going to attack the rim, and find ways to pursue every rebound.”
The Matadors will enter conference play with the worst overall record in the Big West, hoping they could start on the right foot when they host Cal Poly on Dec. 28.
