Northridge Struggles Past NAIA Foe Westmont, 75-59

Forget a possible arena and move to Division I. Those are plans of the future.

The Cal State Northridge basketball team got a sobering dose of the present Saturday night from Westmont, an NAIA team from a school with an enrollment of only 1,200.

CSUN won, 75-59, but trailed at the half. This against a small-college team without its leading scorer. Mike Kelly, who is averaging 18.2 points a game for Westmont, was in street clothes because of tendinitis in his right ankle.

Perhaps, CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said, he was damaging the Matadors even from there.

“Sometimes other players rally together to pick up the slack when that happens,” Cassidy said.

Certainly, Westmont (3-3) did not lack for effort. The Warriors scrambled for every loose ball and outrebounded Northridge, 21-10, in the first half.

Cassidy, who has been known to rip off a halftime tirade, said that he politely made note of the statistic to his players at intermission.

Northridge also failed to shoot well before halftime, making only 33% from the field. In the second half, CSUN shot 70% and center Todd Bowser scored 19 of his game-high 27 points.

“We figured if we could get the ball into Todd we might get them in foul trouble because he’s so difficult to defend,” Cassidy said. “He’s such a wide body.”

Northridge outscored Westmont, 16-5, in the first 5 minutes of the second half. Leading the charge was Bowser, who planted his 6-8, 270-pound frame in the key and scored on a variety of short jump shots, hooks, rebounds and, most often, free throws. He was 9 of 12 from the line.