Was Watching CSUN Worth Braving Cold for Kansas State Fans?

Kansas State fans camped out for two weeks in October, part of that period in 20-degree temperature, to get season tickets for Wildcat home games.

The 10,500 on hand Monday had a rip-roaring time watching the Wildcats beat Cal State Northridge, 91-46, to win their 16th consecutive home opener in aging Ahearn Field House.

“I like playing here better than at Wichita State,” CSUN guard Troy Dueker said the day of the game. “It reminds me of ‘Hoosiers.’ It got me fired up.”

CSUN dropped a 78-53 decision at Wichita State two days before facing Kansas State.

This is the final season in which the Wildcats will play home games in the building that was opened in 1950. The team will move from the 11,220-capacity field house to a new 13,500 seat arena next season.

Double trouble: After the game against Kansas State on Monday, a reporter asked Matador Coach Pete Cassidy about the team’s problems en route to an eight-point first half.

“Was it your shooting or K-State’s defense in the first half?,” the reporter asked.

“Yes,” Cassidy said.

One for the books: CSUN’s eight-point first half had Wildcat fans scrambling through their programs in search of the record for fewest points allowed in a game.

“I’m glad we didn’t score eight in the second half and end up with 16,” Dueker said.

But even if the Matadors had simply doubled their first-half output, they would have been secure from surpassing the one-game mark for futility, 15 points, set by Washburn in 1940.

Understatement-of-the-year dept: Kansas State Coach Lon Kruger on CSUN’s shooting in the first half. “They had some trouble getting the ball to go down early and it kind of seemed to snowball a little bit.”

Sure: After Wichita State’s easy 78-53 win over CSUN last Saturday, Shocker Coach Eddie Fogler said his team wasn’t looking past the Matadors to its game tonight against nationally-ranked Purdue.

“It would have been very easy to sit home Thanksgiving weekend and watch tape of Purdue, but we didn’t do that,” said Fogler, who is in his second year at Wichita State after spending 15 years on the North Carolina staff.

“Northridge played us tough. I’d rather have a game like the one we played tonight than walk over someone in 10 minutes.”

Getting together: Dueker, a senior, said the trip to Kansas was productive even though the Matadors failed to win a game or shoot better than 33% from the field.

“The best thing that came out of the trip was the team unity,” he said. “In the past, we had two guys here, three guys and so on. We stuck together and did things as a team during the whole trip. That will help us later on.”

Not hot: The Cal Lutheran basketball team, which was defeated by UC Riverside, 104-64, earlier this week, has lost its first four games. The Kingsmen’s problems are multifarious, stemming mostly from low shooting percentages, low rebounding totals and an overabundance of turnovers. They have yet to shoot better than 46% in any game and have been outrebounded, 193-124. Against Riverside, CLU had 29 turnovers.

“Each night it’s been something different,” assistant Brian Underwood said . “We haven’t been shooting, which is disappointing because we have good shooters.”

In theory, anyway. The only dependable scorer has been junior guard Steve deLaveaga, who is averaging 25 points a game.

Nothing to do but win: There is not a lot to do in Longview, Tex., besides watch television.

But Master’s didn’t travel to Longview last week to watch reruns of “Dallas.” The Mustangs made the trek to win their first National Christian College Athletic Assn. national soccer championship.

Master’s (17-5) won, 3-0, in Saturday’s championship match against Spring Arbor (Mich.) at LeTourneau College.

Freshman Chris Palm scored four goals in the tournament to cap a record-setting season. He was named the tournament’s most-valuable player and was selected as an NCCAA All-American. Master’s sweeper Jim Rickard, the top defensive player in the tournament, and Chris Bingman were NCCAA honorable mention.

Sophomore goalie Allan Bowden allowed just one goal in three games.

Honor roll: Cindie Jorgensen and Jill Koscinski of Cal Lutheran have been named to the NAIA women’s volleyball All-American team. Jorgensen was selected to the second team and Koscinski, the player of the year in District III, was honorable mention.

Putting up its Dukes: CSUN cornerback Kip Dukes was named to the Kodak All-American team’s college division after leading the Western Football Conference in punt returning. He also had four interceptions.

Staff writers Gary Klein, Mike Hiserman, Gordon Monson and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.