Northridge Burned by Hot-Shooting San Luis Obispo, 98-70

Cal State Bakersfield clinched the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball title Friday night, but Cal Poly San Luis Obispo might be the hottest team in the conference after pounding Cal State Northridge, 98-70.

The victory was the fifth in a row for the visiting Mustangs (18-8, 8-5 in conference play), who clinched a berth in the four-team CCAA tournament and avenged a 90-78 loss to Northridge in the conference opener.

“We kind of took them lightly last time,” San Luis Obispo guard Simon Thomas said. “But we made sure that didn’t happen tonight . . . We’re not talented enough to look past any team in this conference, but when we’re in it mentally like tonight, we can play with anyone.”

The 28-point loss was the worst of the season, the second in a row and seventh in the last nine games for Northridge (11-15, 6-7), yet the Matadors could still advance to the CCAA tournament should they beat visiting Bakersfield tonight while Cal State Dominguez Hills defeats UC Riverside and San Luis Obispo stops Cal State Los Angeles.

In that event Northridge, Dominguez Hills and Cal State L .A. would all be 7-7 in conference play, and Northridge would advance on the second tiebreaker which would pit their record against the other tournament teams.

But the Matadors will have to improve drastically in 24 hours time for that to happen.

On Friday, they played well defensively in the first half (trailing 32-30 at intermission), but watched helplessly as San Luis Obispo hit 10 of its first 11 shots in the second half to take a 58-49 lead with 11:16 left in the game.

Forward Coby Naess led the Mustang stampede, scoring six of his career-high 30 points during the stretch.

Northridge whittled the deficit to 59-52 with 10:01 left on Bill Mazurie’s three-point play, but San Luis Obispo countered with a 23-13 run to take an 82-65 lead with three minutes left. Gathers had a team-high 18 points for the Matadors, while Mazurie and Kendell McDaniels added 12 each.

Northridge trailed, 32-30, at halftime after making only 14 of 34 field goal-attempts. But the Matadors’ defense compensated for their lackluster offense by limiting San Luis Obispo to 32.3% (11 of 34) from the field.

Down, 23-18, with 6:59 left, Northridge went on a 12-9 run to pull within two points at the end of the first 20 minutes.

Mazurie capped the scoring with a second left on a layup off a Eugene Humphrey steal.