After nearly a two week long break, the CSUN men’s basketball team made their return to the hardwood as they traveled down the 405 Freeway to take on the USC Trojans in one of their last non-conference games of the season.
The Matadors nearly went into halftime leading against the only power conference foe the team faces this season, but fell short as the Trojans used an explosive second half to come out on top 90-69 at the Galen Center.
CSUN had an 11 day break in between their Dec. 7 game at Cal Poly and their Dec. 18 game at USC.
CSUN head coach Andy Newman said that despite the long stretch of no games, the team didn’t seem to be negatively affected by the break.
“Obviously that can go one of two ways, it can either keep you out of rhythm or it could be good for the players and give them a little rest. So I think it was good,” Newman said. “Our guys came out and played good in the first half, so I don’t think it was a rhythm problem. I was happy with the effort and I wouldn’t do it any different.”
It was another big game from CSUN’s star forward Keonte Jones. The senior forward registered his sixth double-double of the season and had 17 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, and three assists in the loss. Jones has finished in double-digits every game so far for the Matadors.
“He’s super steady, he impacts the game in a lot of great ways for us,” Newman noted. “He’s terrific. We need him to keep going and keep rolling forward for us and we’re gonna have a great year.”
Despite the long layoff, the Matadors’ offense didn’t skip a beat and got into a back-and-forth shootout in the first half with the Trojans.
Although CSUN jumped out to a hot start, it felt like anything they did was in vain as USC had one of the best shooting nights of the season. The Trojans finished the game 12-19 from behind the arc for a whopping 63.2 percent. From the field, USC shot 46.9 percent compared to CSUN’s 40.7 percent.
Simply put, it was not the Matadors night as they ran into an unstoppable force in the Trojans’ offense.
The first half saw CSUN exchange blows with USC, but interestingly enough, the Matadors only lead for 1:01. After crawling back from a 12-point USC lead, CSUN managed to jump ahead during the final few minutes of the half. The Matadors almost went into the half with a 39-37 lead before USC guard Kevin Patton Jr. hit a three-point shot at the buzzer to give USC the one point lead heading into the half.
The second half belonged to USC from the jump as the Trojans opened the half with an 11-point run. From there, CSUN faced an uphill battle, one that they would not overcome.
USC guard Chibuzo Agbo ended with a game-high 23 points on 6-10 shooting, including 5-7 from three.
The Matadors have only two non-conference games left on their schedule before resuming Big West play. CSUN will host back-to-back home games for the first time all season as Chicago State travels to the Premier America Credit Union Arena on Dec. 21 before hosting La Sierra a week later on Dec. 28.
CSUN will look to right the ship with their game vs. Chicago State on Dec. 21. The game is at 11 a.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+.