Northridge Gathers Offense Together in Time to Beat CLU

Having suffered a heartbreaking quadruple-overtime loss to the College of St. Thomas in its opener Saturday night, the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team was eager to make amends against Cal Lutheran on Tuesday.

Perhaps too eager.

An impatient Matador offense made only 32% (11 of 34) of its shots in the first half. But in the second half, Northridge settled down, hitting 18 of 34 shots en route to a 79-63 victory in a nonconference game at Northridge.

“We’re like a bunch of thoroughbreds,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said. “We’re young and we have a tendency to just want to get out and run. . . . We get overanxious, and it affects the way we play.”

Derrick Gathers was a prime example of what Cassidy was talking about. The Matadors’ leading scorer last year, Gathers scored only two points in the first half on one-of-11 shooting, but he finished with a team-high 18 points after hitting six of 11 shots in the second half.

‘I’m a shooter,” said Gathers, who scored a team-high 26 points against St. Thomas. “So I wasn’t really worried about the first half. I knew I would heat up sooner or later. Coach told me at half to just relax and things would start to fall and they did.”

Leading, 38-32, early in the second half, Northridge--led by Gathers--put the game away with a 23-9 run.

Gathers, who had missed his last 10 shots of the first half, made three of four--including two three-point baskets--during the surge.

With a 20-point lead, Cassidy sat four of his five starters, but Cal Lutheran, led by Jeff deLaveaga, countered with an 7-0 run to narrow the Matadors’ lead to 61-48 with 9:12 remaining.

DeLaveaga, who scored a game-high 27 points, had five points during the Kingsmen rally, prompting Cassidy to reinsert Gathers and Co. into the lineup.

Northridge (1-1) quickly hit four consecutive baskets to take a 71-48 lead with 7:35 left, and Cal Lutheran (0-4) got no closer than 14 points after that.

Gathers made three-point baskets to start the run and finish it, and baskets by Kris Brodowski and Kendell McDaniels were sandwiched in between.

Brodowski scored 12 points in the game, along with teammates Jemarl Baker and Eugene Humphrey; McDaniels had 11 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.

Sandy Brown added nine points off the bench--all in the second half--for the Matadors.

Northridge led, 36-30, at halftime, despite Gathers’ troubles.

Humphrey picked up the scoring slack, scoring 10 points on four-of-five shooting, including two three-point baskets.

“Gene is one of our most patient players,” Cassidy said. “He’s a very intelligent player on the court. He doesn’t get overly excited.”

DeLaveaga, the younger brother of former Cal Lutheran standout Steve, led the Kingsmen with 12 points in the first half, hitting four of eight shots.

Northridge appeared to be on the verge of blowing Cal Lutheran out in the first half--leading, 29-17, with 5:37 left--but the Kingsmen went on an 11-4 tear over the next 3:59 to narrow the deficit to 33-28 with 1:38 left in the half.

The Matadors will travel to Utah later this week for games against Weber State on Friday and Utah State on Saturday.