Northridge Tops Westmont Despite a Case of First-Half Blues

For Cal State Northridge, probably the best thing about the first half of its game against Westmont College was that it ended. The second-best thing was that the Matadors trailed by only seven points. It could have been worse.

Just before the half ended, CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy called time out and changed his zone defense to a man-to-man. Later, he changed his motion offense to a 1-3-1. As a result, the Matadors came back to win, 61-58.

After the first 20 minutes, CSUN trailed, 28-21. The offense, as it has in all five of CSUN’s previous games, sputtered. While the Matadors were busy making bad passes and fumbling the good ones out of bounds, Westmont’s Darryl Jones was drilling jumpers from 17 feet.

Then the Warriors started pounding the ball inside to 6-9 center Shawn Stuerman for easy baskets. The Matadors (4-2) were bombing from outside and missing. When they did go inside, Stuerman swatted their shots away. It was ugly.

After the Warriors went ahead, 10-2, they missed some shots and botched a few fast breaks themselves.

The CSUN offense, still not kicking into gear against Westmont’s 2-3 zone defense, relied heavily on forward Jimmy Daniels. The 6-3 forward made enough shots to keep his team within shouting distance.

Cassidy said his team’s second-half performance was the best the Matadors have played.

“We scrapped like hell,” Cassidy said. “Without a doubt, going to the man defense was the key in this game. It was great that we got down like we did, and then to come back and win it with this young team . . . We are showing signs of improvement.”

The Matadors outscored the Warriors, 40-30, in the second half. After making 10 of 26 shots for a 39% average in the first half, they hit 15 of 24 for 63% in the second. After making a boatload of turnovers in the first half, CSUN played nearly error-free in the second.

“We went to a basic offense,” Cassidy said. “We tried to get certain people in certain spots and work it from there.”

Certain people in certain spots included Daniels getting comfortable along the right baseline. Mostly from there, he made 10 of 17 shots and finished with 21 points. He also pulled down 10 rebounds. Dan Mulder came off the bench to score 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting.

With just under three minutes left, guard Paul Drecksel stole the ball, which led to an underhanded scoop shot by Mulder. The basket put CSUN ahead, 54-51.

Mulder then came up with a key steal with 1:51 left. He picked off the ball under the Westmont basket and was fouled. His free throw increased the Matador lead to 55-51.

After Mulder’s foul shot, Westmont guard Jon Freeman tipped in a rebound to cut the lead to 55-53. But Drecksel’s two free throws pushed the lead back to four.

The Warriors then made a critical error. On an inbounds play, Matador Pat Bolden chased down an errant pass. He was fouled and made one of two free throws.

With 11 seconds left, Westmont guard Will Smith Jr. drove in for a basket that cut CSUN’s lead to one at 59-58. Drecksel was fouled with five seconds remaining. He sank both foul shots.

Cal State Northridge 61, Westmont 58