CSUN Men’s Basketball (6-9) suffered a tough 65-60 loss at San Diego State on Tuesday afternoon at Viejas Arena. Freshman Lamine Diane collected his eighth double-double with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Terrell Gomez and Rodney Henderson Jr. each tallied 10 points.

The Matadors led by as many as 19 points in the second half but the Aztecs put together a furious rally down the stretch to pull off the win.

“First of all, I’m really proud of our team,” said head coach Mark Gottfried. “I thought for 30 minutes we played really good basketball on both ends of the floor. I think what happens when you’re a young team, you have to learn how to withstand a run that you know is coming. The crowd is going to get up, they are going to make a couple of shots. We just didn’t withstand the run. I thought we looked like a young team at that point. I thought the last 10 minutes we didn’t defend them nearly as well as we did early.”

CSUN shot a season-low 34.4 percent from the field and went 4-of-20 from 3-point range (20.0 percent). On the flip side, the Aztecs shot 40.3 percent and 8-of-25 from downtown (32.0 percent). The Matadors hit 14-of-17 from the free throw line for a season-high 82.4 percentage. On the glass, CSUN out-rebounded SDSU 39-37.

The Aztecs jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the Matadors finally broke the scoring column on a jumper from Diane at the 17:06 mark. After trailing 11-10 at the 9:05 mark, the Matadors would go in front on a 3-pointer from Gomez. From there, the Matadors led for the remainder of the half. CSUN held San Diego State to 28.1 percent shooting in the period while it shot 40.1 percent.

The Matadors went on a 7-0 run, capped off by a breakaway dunk from Diane to take a 27-17 lead at the 2:42 mark. Diane had 12 points in the half while Henderson Jr. added eight points to power the Matador offense. Michael Ou scored the final shot of the half with five seconds left to give CSUN a 32-21 edge at the break.

In the early minutes of the second half, the Matadors maintained their double-digit lead as Diane scored the team’s first seven points. Diane later found Cameron Gottfried on a fastbreak layup that capped a 7-0 run, pushing the CSUN lead to 46-27 at the 15:10 mark.

After going 2-of-15 from 3-point range in the first half, the Aztecs caught fire from long range in the second half, hitting 6-of-10. Jeremy Hemsley converted on 4-of-5 from long range in the period while Devin Watson added 12 points. The Matadors would go without a field goal for nearly six minutes during a key stretch in the second half, giving the Aztecs a chance to go on a 21-4 run to even the game.

Called for his fourth foul at the 8:36 mark, Diane returned to the court minutes later to give CSUN a 55-53 lead. Adam Seiko would put the Aztecs in front on a 3-pointer before Darius Brown II responded with a running jumper. CSUN took a 60-58 lead with 2:16 left but the Aztecs scored five unanswered. Brown looked to even the game with less than a minute to play on a 3-pointer but his shot rimmed out, securing the win for San Diego State.

Ou finished with eight points to go with five rebounds while Brown chipped in eight assists and seven points. Henderson Jr. grabbed a season-high six rebounds.

For the Aztecs, Jalen McDaniels finished with a team-high 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

The Matadors conclude non-conference play with Yale on Saturday at The Matadome with tip off slated for 7 p,m. The game is the second of a CSUN Basketball doubleheader with the CSUN Women’s Basketball team hosting UC Santa Barbara in the early game at 4:00 p.m.