CSUN Women Lose Tournament to Pomona, 66-52

The Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team considers Cal Poly Pomona its arch rival. And what does Pomona think of Northridge?

Well, not much, to tell the truth.

It’s kind of tough to maintain interest in a rivalry when one team, Pomona, has won 24 of 25 meetings. Anyone who thinks that’s very competitive, probably likes going to demolition derbies between Honda Civics and Caterpillar tractors.

Pomona won again, 66-52, Saturday night in the championship game of the Lions Club tournament at Pomona. But this time, the Northridge players left the gymnasium actually believing that this might be the year that this whole thing becomes a real rivalry.

“I think we’re closer to them now than we’ve ever been,” said CSUN forward Denise Sitton, who had 22 points, 14 rebounds and was named to the all-tournament team. “I feel like this is the year we beat them.”

For a while, it looked as if the Lady Matadors (1-1) had a chance to end the streak on Saturday night.

They led the defending NCAA Division II champion Broncos, 22-17, with 5:38 left in the first half before Pomona took control of the contest.

After Sitton’s 19-foot jumper gave Northridge the five-point lead, the Broncos went on a 9-0 run to end the half and take a 26-22 lead into the intermission.

“We should have been up by about 15 points at the half,” Northridge Coach Leslie Milke said.

Lady Matador forward Julie Middleton agreed. “When we went up by five, we were playing well and in a good position to push it up to 10.”

Then why didn’t they?

“It seemed like every time we got into a critical situation, a foul call went against us,” Milke said.

And it happened a lot. Northridge was called for 27 fouls, while Pomona (2-0) was whistled for 16 and had 34 foul shots to CSUN’s 17.

Sure, that hurt the Lady Matadors, but going scoreless for nearly six minutes isn’t usually a good idea if you’re trying to stay in a game, much less increase a lead.

Pomona forward Debra Larsen, the most valuable player of the tournament, scored 13 points in the second half.

“I think that, if I were on their team, I’d start to hate us,” Larsen said. “When you play each other as many times as we have, and lose every time, it’s got to get really frustrating.”