College Basketball ROUNDUP : CSUN Women Come Close But Top-Ranked Chapman Wins, 60-54

Leslie Milke lost a basketball game but gained a moral victory Thursday night.

When the season is over and her dismal season in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. is forgotten, she can at least boast that her team had a chance to blow Division II’s top-ranked Chapman College out of a game in the first half.

The Lady Matadors of Cal State Northridge, in fact, had an excellent opportunity to win before losing a thrilling 60-54 game at home.

CSUN, which has lost of seven of its last 10 games, led by six points with 8:26 left in the first half when Chapman turned the ball over three straight times.

The Lady Matadors, however, could not capitalize and the Panthers were able to tie the score, 28-28, by halftime.

“Instead of blowing them out, we let them back in the game,” Milke explained after the loss guaranteed her her second losing season in two years as head coach. The team is 2-7 in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. and 8-13 overall.

“We got tired and stopped playing deliberate,” she added.

The Lady Matadors trailed by three points, 42-39, with 11:29 left in the game. But the Panthers outscored their host by 13 points to grab an insurmountable 60-44 advantage with three and a half minutes left in the game.

The respective head coaches had differing opinions about the game’s ending.

“We spent two days picking (Chapman’s) offense apart,” Milke said. Chapman committed 29 turnovers and the Lady Matadors managed 15 steals. CSUN countered with 25 turnovers and allowed 16 steals.

“We knew what they were going to do before they did it,” Milke added, her team paced by Renee Loch’s 11 points. CSUN also got nine points each from Lori Costello and Tracey Davis.

Regan O’Hara and Dianna Ayala scored eight points and pulled down nine rebounds each, while Costello also grabbed nine rebounds for CSUN. The Lady Matadors play at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Saturday.

Chapman head Coach Brian Berger, whose squad is 22-2 overall and 8-0 in the conference, blamed the close game on a month-long curse.

“Being ranked No. 1 is a curse,” Berger said after getting a game-high 12 points each from Delisa Carter, Leone Patterson and Susan Bergendahl.

“Everybody expects us to win, we expect to win,” Berger said. “We have been playing stupid basketball for the last month. Being ranked No. 1 has an effect on you mentally to win and in our case it’s been negative.”

MEN

CS Bakersfield 53, CSUN 51

Felipe Garner grabbed an offensive rebound and made a nine-footer at the buzzer to give Cal State Bakersfield a win over Cal State Northridge at Bakersfield.

With the victory, the Roadrunners moved a game behind Northridge in the CCAA with a 6-4 record. The Matadors, who are now 7-3 in conference play, dropped out of first place.

After trailing 31-25 at halftime, Northridge caught Bakersfield at 43 with 8:35 left in the game. The Roadrunners outscored Northridge, 6-0, in the next 1:50, but the Matadors answered by scoring the next six points to tie the score at 49.

Northridge got the ball back after an errant pass and held the ball for a little more than two minutes before guard Mike Almeido had a layup nullified by a charging call. Bakersfield went up by a basket on a Leonard Brown layup with 1:53 left but Matador center Tom Ruetten tied the game at 51 with his own layup.

Brown led all scorers with 15 points. He also had four rebounds. Judson Beardsley scored 10 points. The Matadors were led by Larry White’s 15 points and Almeido, who hit 5 of 6 field goals and had five assists.

After Bakersfield called a timeout Victor Green missed a shot with three seconds left. Garner grabbed the rebound and scored as time ran out.