Coming off one of their best wins of the season in a 83-60 smackdown of Hawai’i on Jan. 16, the CSUN men’s basketball team traveled back to the mainland to host Long Beach State (7-13, 3-5) at the Premier America Credit Union Arena.
The Matadors used an explosive first half to propel to a 86-76 win over the Beach on Thursday night. The win pushes CSUN to a 13-6 record overall and 5-3 in the Big West.
CSUN had six players finish in double-digits, but were led by guard Scotty Washington. It was another big game for the redshirt junior as he finished with 19 points, four assists and two steals in the win.

Washington said the game was personal for the program, which helped them explode for 57 points in the first half.
“I felt good, once we started rolling on defense, I feel like that snowballs everything on offense,” Washington said. “This game was a little bit personal for us.”
In the last five games, Washington has only once shot below 50 percent from the field. He was 7-14 from the field vs. the Beach and credits the coaching staff for building his confidence.
“I feel like that’s just the coaching staff, they put a lot of confidence in me and tell me to shoot even when I am missing, and keep being aggressive,” Washington said. “I’m glad I play for a staff like this and the style like this, I credit the staff.”
It’s a big result for the Matadors in their hunt for a top four seed heading into the Big West conference postseason tournament. Most importantly, it gives the team confidence and momentum heading into a big showdown on Saturday, Jan. 25 vs. UC San Diego.
CSUN head coach Andy Newman said despite the win, he wasn’t entirely pleased with the Matadors’ play.
“We can be really good if we lock in and stay dialed in for 40 minutes. We’re fighting complacency right now, probably like most teams across the country, but when we’re dialed in and locked in, we’re as good as anybody in the (Big West),” Newman said.

In the first half, the Matadors’ offense flowed through their leading scorer, Marcus Adams Jr. He had 15 points in the first half and seemed on pace to break his career-high of 28 points. However, CSUN managed to spread the ball around in the second half and Adams Jr. ended his night with 17 points.
“That’s the good thing about us, we are not one dimensional. We got a lot of different guys who can score in a lot of different ways. We can get to the rim, we can post up, we can shoot the three now. It makes us hard to defend,” Newman said.
The Matadors shot 50 percent from behind the arc in the first half, but lost their touch in the second half. Their three-point shooting percentage dropped by 30 percent as they shot a paltry 2-10 from three. The poor shooting led to CSUN getting outscored by LBSU in the second half, 41-29.
Newman said the team’s level of play dropped considerably in the second half after the Matadors came out of halftime with a 22-point lead.
“We started getting really selfish and started playing the scoreboard. It’s basketball, you get a big lead and then turn it off. That’s what we did and we got to learn how to fight that and get better,” Newman said.