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In the lead-up to Cal State Northridge Matadors’ visit to the UCLA Bruins’ Paulie Pavillion, everything pointed towards a home victory. The 13,800-capacity basketball arena home to the UCLA Bruins had borne witness to an incredible 29-game winning streak, and the home crowd were confident of a 30th victory against the Matadors.

Without a victory against a Pac-12 school in 11 years, the Matadors made the trip with few believing this would be the game when fortunes would change. However, a big surprise was in store and Cal State Northridge finally had cause for celebration after a hard-fought battle.

Cal State Northridge Matadors

The Cal State Northridge Matadors have an impressive 12-3 record so far this season and followed up their impressive win at UCLA with victories against Montana State, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, and Hawai’i.

Their only defeats came against Stanford on the opening day of the season, Le Moyne, and Northern Colorado giving them a 6-1 home record and a 6-2 away record.

The UCLA victory was part of a seven-game winning streak that they will be hopeful of continuing when they visit UC Davis on January 11th.

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CSUN have a number of extremely promising prospects in this season’s roster including De’Sean Allen-Eikens who has a 19.4 point average across his 14 games this season. The 6ft 6″ guard also has a 5.9 rebound average and 1.8 assist average this season.

Dionte Bostick is also impressive this year with a 16.3 point, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assist average.

Cal State Northridge Matadors 76 – 72 UCLA Bruins

An incredible team effort and standout performances from Dionte Bostick, DeSean Allen-Eikens, and Mahmoud Fofana saw the CSUN Men’s Basketball team stun the UCLA crowd with a 76-72 victory.

Despite falling 2-0 behind, the Matadors went on to score 5-straight points and an 11-0 run that saw them lead 16-5. The Bruins threatened to draw level before halftime and brought the game back to 20-19 with just under 9 minutes left. The Matadors pulled together and drew away again to finish the first half 14 points ahead at 40-26.

Gianni Hunt and Mahmoud Fofana both scored 9 points in the first half, but it was the scoring contributions of Bostick and Allen-Eikens that drove the team towards victory. Bostwick’s 18 points was a team-high and Allen Eikens was only 1 behind with 17.

CSUN’s 36 rebounds to UCLA’s 34 and their 14 steals compared to UCLA’s 6 showed they had the fire in their bellies to fight and they began the second half by scoring the first 5 points.

UCLA’s quality and experience began to shine through but they were not able to do enough despite scoring 46 points to CSUN’s 36 in the second half. A frantic end to the game saw the Bruins push, but Allen Eikens’ free throw to put CSUN 76-72 with three seconds left on the clock proved to be enough.

What Next for the Cal State Northridge Matadors

Coach Andy Newman spoke after the game of his pride at his team’s strength and effort, and the fact they were able to knuckle down and win their following four matches will be just as pleasing.

The seven wins in a row tie the school division record, and the Matadors will be hoping they can smash it by continuing the streak. The future is looking bright for the Matadors under Newman’s stewardship.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash