CSUN Gets 1st Victory, Beats Hastings, 74-63

After two season-opening losses against Division I opponents on the road, the Cal State Northridge basketball team needed a break. More than that, the Matadors needed a win.

They got both against visiting Hastings College, a small NAIA school located in Nebraska. The Matadors beat the Broncos, 74-63, Saturday night at Northridge.

“And we’ll keep it,” CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said. “It wasn’t a guppy--this fish was a big enough win. We won’t give it back. It should give us a lift.”

Not surprisingly, CSUN looked more comfortable against Hastings and, certainly, they played with more confidence than in previous games at Wyoming and Colorado State.

Still, early in the game the Matadors did not play well. They hit only 10 of their first 26 shots, a cool 38% from the floor. Even worse, they had turnover problems, finishing with 24.

“Our ball-handling skills need improvement,” Cassidy said. “We need to move better without the ball, but we’ll get better at it. We’re still learning the offense.”

Assistant coach Mark Felix was less diplomatic. “They were terrible,” he said of the turnovers. “Our guys tried to finesse Hastings. We tried to dazzle them. We did a lot of unsafe things and took too many chances.”

Initially, CSUN tried to fast break, but Hastings benefited from the quick tempo. The Broncos made 8 of their first 15 shots and led by as many as four points. It wasn’t so much that Hastings was running the floor well, but that Northridge, as Felix noted, was making bad passes. At times, the Matador offense seemed in disarray.

After a CSUN timeout, the Matadors went ahead for the first time, 17-16, when guard Paul Drecksel converted a three-point play with 9:08 left in the half.

Later, the Matadors extended their lead when Jimmie Daniels warmed up from the outside, hitting three straight jumpers to help CSUN to a 34-24 halftime lead. Of the team’s 34 points, Daniels had half.

Hastings, which had started with a sort of laid-back 2-3 zone defense, pressured the Matador guards in the second half. The Broncos cut the lead to six, but CSUN came back.

Pat Bolden, who ended with 18 points, was effective from close range and helped CSUN run its lead to 14.

The Broncos made one last run midway through the second half when guard Tay Locke started hitting medium-range jumpers. With 7:40 left, Locke drilled a 20-foot shot that brought Hastings within five at 53-48.

Bolden and Drecksel led CSUN back to a 19-point lead with just under four minutes left.

An interesting note in this game was that Matador James Carr, who had nine points and eight rebounds, is from Hastings, Neb. “I could’ve played for that team,” Carr said. “I grew up two blocks from the college. It was a thrill beating them.”