Cal State L.A. Upsets CSUN Women

The Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team, enjoying its best season in school history, will enter the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. postseason tournament on Friday with a two-game losing streak.

The Lady Matadors were upset, 73-66, by Cal State Los Angeles in the final game of the regular season Tuesday night.

The Golden Eagles (8-16), in sixth place in the seven-team conference, came up with only their third CCAA victory. The only other conference team they had beaten was winless Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The loss dropped the Lady Matadors (18-7, 7-5 in conference) into a three-way tie for second place with Chapman and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Northridge, ranked 14th in Division II, will enter the tournament as the second-place team because of a better overall record. The Lady Matadors will play Chapman, the third-place qualifier, in the first round.

San Luis Obispo will meet defending national champion Cal Poly Pomona in the other first-round game. Both games will be played in San Luis Obispo. The Northridge-Chapman contest will begin at noon, and the Pomona-San Luis Obispo game will start at 6 p.m.

While the Lady Matadors will probably somehow find their way to the tournament, they had considerable trouble Tuesday night handling themselves against a team comprised mostly of freshmen and sophomores.

Two of the CSUN players were at a loss to explain the defeat.

“We were just too goofy,” said junior forward Denise Sitton, who scored 15 points but was in foul trouble for much of the game.

“I don’t know what was going on out there,” said sophomore forward Regan O’Hara, who added 14 points and 14 rebounds. “It was like we were in slow motion. It was gross.”

Northridge Coach Leslie Milke didn’t have much of an explanation at all. She was out the door before anyone could catch up with her.

Before the quick exit, Milke could only watch as her team rallied from a 39-32 halftime deficit to take a two-point lead with a little more than four minutes left in the game. But the Lady Matadors were outscored, 10-1, in the next three minutes to fall behind, 69-62.

Guard Collette Seguine led the Golden Eagles with 15 points, while teammates Lupe Quintana and Pattie Held each scored 14.

“We weren’t as intense as we should have been,” Sitton said. “It was our last home game and we were into putting up posters and handing out roses, having a good time. We didn’t end up having that great of a time, though.”

Unlike the women’s team, the Cal State Northridge men’s team is not going to a postseason tournament. But it finished its season in much the same manner, losing to Cal State L.A., 69-55.

The Matadors, last season’s conference champions, finished 11-15 overall and 4-10 in the CCAA.

Northridge center Paul Hobus set a school record early in the first half by committing his 104th personal foul of the season. He finished with 106.