Northridge Rises at Home Without a Fall

There were no surprises in Cal State Northridge’s California Collegiate Athletic Assn. home opener against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday night, much to the delight of one very relieved veteran coach.

Pete Cassidy has been coaching in the CCAA since the early 1970s. Surely he had seen this situation before:

A team fresh off two upset victories on the road strolls in for a little home cooking against an also-ran, only to get roasted.

But it didn’t happen.

Northridge took care of business against lowly Dominguez Hills and won going away, 77-59.

As a result, the Matadors--picked to finish in the middle of the pack in a CCAA preseason poll--awoke this morning alone in first place with a 3-0 record.

UC Riverside, the team with which CSUN earlier was tied, lost at Cal Poly Pomona, 84-79.

Indeed, on a night when Derrick Gathers, CSUN’s top scorer, never got into a rhythm on offense, the Matadors got help all around.

“In terms of the team--moving the basketball and looking to get open--it was one of our better games,” said Cassidy, whose team evened its overall record at 8-8. “We’re growing.”

Ten Matadors played and all scored. Kendell McDaniels led the balanced attack with 14 points, Gathers had 13 and Kris Brodowski added 10. Five Matadors scored between five and nine points.

“We learned in the preseason that we have to have scoring from everyone,” said Gathers, who came in third in the CCAA with a 19.9 scoring average. “If they try to deny me and Kendell, we just look to someone else.”

Dominguez Hills (4-12, 0-3) stayed close for much of the game. The Toros were within striking distance, trailing, 66-59, with 4 minutes, 14 seconds left, but they never scored again.

Brodowski fed McDaniels with a bounce pass for a layup and a minute later McDaniels returned the favor to set up Brodowski, sparking an 11-0 run.

“That’s the other thing we learned in preseason,” Gathers said. “We’re never going to let up.”

Although Gathers was held seven points under his season average, he made up for it in other departments. He had five assists, two steals and a game-high seven rebounds.

Dominguez Hills, which started three freshman, a sophomore and a junior, got 16 points from guard Raymond Bennett and 15 from Robert Barksdale.

The Toros were outrebounded, 34-24, which made their 37% second-half shooting all the more disastrous.

Northridge, meanwhile, made 16 of 22 field-goal attempts in the second half.