CS Northridge Zeros In on Spot in the Playoffs

So maybe it wasn’t the most impressive looking victory of the season.

Let’s see. Jimmy Daniels, the team’s best shooter, missed the front end of four one-and-ones. And Pat Bolden, a senior for goodness’ sakes, slam dunked the ball on the rim instead of in the net on a breakaway. And

Regardless, when it was over, the Cal State Northridge basketball team had the win, 72-65, over Cal State Bakersfield. And no one was about to throw it back for being ugly.

“It wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take it any way we can get it,” Daniels said.

And Northridge really needed it. The Matadors are 8-5 in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. with tonight’s game at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo left. San Luis Obispo is in a three-way tie for first with Riverside and Dominguez Hills at 9-4.

Riverside and Dominguez Hills will play for at least a share of the championship. Northridge could finish as high as second, but could also end up watching the tournament. Chapman beat UC Riverside on Friday night, 75-70, to stay within striking distance. Chapman plays host to Cal Poly Pomona tonight.

But there wasn’t a player or coach worried about it after Friday night’s win before a crowd of 1,152 at the Civic Auditorium. It was time to savor a victory that they almost let slip away.

“I’m really proud,” Coach Pete Cassidy said. “We’ve come a long way back this season, and in tonight’s game.”

The Matadors jumped out to a 10-2 lead at the start of the game, but ended up on the short end of a 35-28 halftime score. Just how that happened can be traced to the team’s low shooting percentage (38.4%).

The same thing had happened several times early in the season. Northridge jumped out to a lead, its opponent went on a run and took a bigger lead, and the Matadors stiffened up and died.

Not this time. The Matadors had tied the game with 10 minutes remaining, then survived Daniels’ adventures at the free throw line.

Northridge took the lead for good, 53-52, on a three-pointer by Ray Horwath with 9:40 left. Horwath scored a season-high 25 points on 8 of 13 shooting.

“Early in the season we’d take a quick lead, the other team would come back and we’d say, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Daniels said. “Now, when they come back, we come back even harder.”

Daniels, who has scored in double figures in six straight games, had 13. He was only 5 of 10 from the free throw line, however, frustrating him to the point of tears.

“I wanted to cry,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

Daniels’ off-night and the continued scoring slump of Paul Drecksel, who had 6, was atoned for in part by Todd Bowser, who had 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Horwath and Bowser combined to score 22 of CSUN’s 28 points in the first half.

Bakersfield, which will mercifully end its season tonight, win or lose, fell to 4-9 in the CCAA and 15-11 overall.