{"id":80248,"date":"2025-12-03T20:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/80248\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T20:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:22:11","slug":"csun-opens-big-west-play-at-bakersfield-home-for-uc-irvine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/80248\/","title":{"rendered":"CSUN Opens Big West Play at Bakersfield, Home for UC Irvine"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORTHRIDGE, Calif — The CSUN women’s basketball team (3-3) will begin its first games of Big West play this week when the Matadors take on Cal State Bakersfield on the road at the Icardo Center Thursday at 6:30. Then, CSUN will return home to take on the UC Irvine Anteaters at Premier America Credit Union Arena, Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Both games will be livestreamed on ESPN+.
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\nLAST TIME OUT
\nCSUN had no trouble with Life Pacific, as the Matadors were victorious, 106-43 at Premier America Credit Union Arena this past Wednesday. Morgan Edwards<\/a> led all scorers with 21 points as five different Matadors scored in double figures. Rita Nazario added 19 points as she went 5-9 from distance in the victory. All 12 players that suited up for the Matadors found the scoring column.
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\nCSUN’s 106 points is the most scored in its Division I era, breaking the previous high set against Bethesda (103) earlier this season.
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\nCSUN jumped out in front of the Warriors early and never looked back. The Matadors started the game on an 18-3 run, with 10 points from Nazario right out of the gate. CSUN tallied 20 assists to LPU’s five. CSUN’s 60 rebounds are the most in a game this season. The Matadors also tallied 40 points in the paint in the win.
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\nNAZARIO HAS MADE A STATEMENT
\nEntering this year, 5’5 guard Rita Nazario came over to the Matadors after playing previously at Saint Louis. Since becoming a Matador, she has left her mark all over this season and has become CSUN’s most reliable scorer through six games. She is currently leading the team in points per game at 14.7. She has the most three-pointers on the squad with 21 made. She is shooting 47% from the field and 46% from three. The Portugal native also leads the team in minutes per game at 24.8.
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\nTHE RESERVES GETTING IT DONE
\nCSUN has had a balanced scoring attack from its whole team all season long. The Matadors are fifth in the nation in bench points per game at 37 per contest. In the last game against Life Pacific, 60 of the Matadors 106 points came off the bench. Morgan Edwards<\/a>, who did not start, let the game in total points at 21. In the first game of the season against Bethesda, CSUN had 67 points scored from the reserves.
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\nHI, I’M NEW HERE\u00a0
\nA total of 10 newcomers make up this season’s roster, that’s 67 percent of the team. Of the 10 newcomers, six are transfers. In an interview with the Big West during the conference preview on Oct. 17, coach Ned emphasized using the transfer portal to build pieces for a winning program in the offseason. Using the portal is something that every team does in the new age of college sports, and CSUN has taken advantage of it. The transfers include Jite Gbemuotor<\/a> (Ole Miss), Maya Contreras<\/a> (New Mexico Junior College), Mariona Cos-Morales<\/a> (Rider University), Rita Nazario (Saint Louis), Nadia Bernard<\/a> (Saint Mary’s) and Saray White<\/a> (Cosumnes River College). To join the transfers on the squad are four freshmen: Amya Moody<\/a>, Norret Lewis<\/a>, Heather Stedman<\/a> and Jana Canadell<\/a>.
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\nSCOUTING CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD
\nThe Roadrunners are 2-5 to begin the season but have been solid lately, winning two out of their last three games. Bakersfield has wins against Omaha and Wichita State, both on the road. Thursday’s game between CSUN and CSUB will be the Roadrunners’ first home game since November 11, a 68-65 loss to Utah State. They are led in scoring by Crishawn Coleman, who is tallying 17.0 PPG, which is good enough for fourth in the Big West.
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\nThe Roadrunners average 58.7 points per game as a team per contest while giving up 70.3 on the defensive end. They have the lowest free-throw percentage in the conference at 61%.
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\nSERIES HISTORY
\nBoth these teams split the two contests played in 2024-25, with each team winning on the road. The last time CSUN played at the Icardo Center was February 1, where the Matadors came out on top, 65-51. All time, Bakersfield holds an 11-6 advantage over the Matadors.
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\nSCOUTING UC IRVINE
\nUCI is 6-2 on the season and is riding a five-game winning streak. The Anteaters are tops in the Big West in defense, only allowing 58.8 points per contest. Jada Wynn leads the team in scoring at 14.4 points per game, that is good for seventh in the Big West. CSUN has to be cautions on fouls, as UCI is draining freethrows at a great clip. UCI is currently first in the Big West with an 84% free-throw percentage.
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\nHunter Hernandez, who was named to the All Big-West team prior to the season, is second in scoring at 13.8 PPG
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\nSERIES HISTORY
\nCSUN fell in both games against UC Irvine last season. All-time, UCI leads the season series, 33-32, as it couldn’t get much more even. CSUN will look to even the series on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTHRIDGE, Calif — The CSUN women’s basketball team (3-3) will begin its first games of Big West play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-80248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}