Northridge Shot Down in Montana

For the fourth time in as many road games, Cal State Northridge gave up more than 100 points.

The Matadors fell, 108-73, Thursday night before 5,551 at Dahlberg Arena to a Montana team that didn’t overwhelm them with size or talent as much as shooting touch.

The Grizzlies (4-2) of the Big Sky Conference hit a season-high 61.7% from the field, including seven of 16 three-point attempts. Seven Montana players scored in double figures, led by reserve Gary Kane with a career-high 21 points.

Northridge, which fell to 1-4, shot an abysmal 34% from the field. From three-point range, CSUN hit only nine of 24 attempts. Six of those were made by senior guard Kyle Kerlegan who led the Matadors with 20 points.

“I think we took some hurried shots,” CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said. “We didn’t make the extra pass or two. When you force it up, it is always going to kill you.”

The Matadors missed nine of their first 12 shots and fell behind, 15-7. Over the next eight minutes, Montana’s lead grew to 12, but a jump shot by freshman Andre Chevalier and a follow shot by Brian Kilian moved CSUN back within eight at 29-21 with 8 minutes 35 seconds left in the half.

The Grizzlies countered with an 8-1 run, including consecutive baskets by reserve Nate Atchison, a 6-8 junior, to gain a 15-point lead, their largest to that point.

After a three-point shot by Kerlegan, Montana outscored CSUN, 30-7, to take a 61-37 halftime advantage. The run included a four-point play by Devlon Anderson made possible by an intentional foul on Northridge forward Shelton Boykin, who prevented Anderson from dunking by knocking him down.

“It hurt us badly,” Cassidy said. “I don’t have any tolerance for that.”

Boykin, who led Northridge with nine rebounds, was immediately removed from the game.

With 12:33 left, Northridge cut the deficit from 27 points to 14 behind the efforts of Kerlegan, Keith Gibbs, Sean Davis and Chevalier.

Kerlegan hit three consecutive three-point shots in 90 seconds and CSUN put together a 10-0 run.

Gibbs hit a 15-footer and an alley-oop off a pass from Davis and made two steals and an assist on a no-look pass to Todd Bowser inside. Davis hit a follow shot, made two steals and picked up another assist and Chevalier made a steal and set up Kerlegan for one of the three-point baskets.

But that was the Matadors’ last and only gasp. Montana hit five of its next six shots and a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 27. Meanwhile, CSUN missed five of its next six shots and turned the ball over twice.

“That was very pleasing to come back like that,” said Cassidy. “It was a shame. You work so hard to close the thing and then you let it slide away.”

Kerlegan didn’t get any satisfaction from the comeback, however.

“No, that was not any consolation,” he said. “We just lost intensity. We didn’t have it the whole first half. We got it for a little while and then we lost it again.”

David Keeter, who entered the game as CSUN’s leading scorer with a 15.5 point-per-game average, missed six of his seven shots and was limited to three points.

Davis, who started the second half in his place, finished with seven rebounds, six points and a team-high four steals in 17 minutes.

“I feel like I’m playing better and better every game,” said Davis, who sat out last season after transferring from San Jose State where he was one of 10 players who quit the Spartan team in the 1989-90 season.

NOTES: The start of the game was delayed five minutes because a woman in the stands suffered a broken leg and had to be carried out of the arena. . . . A woman made a shot from half court during a halftime promotion. . . . Assistant coaches Tom McCollum and Wayne Fluker are out recruiting and did not make the trip. Graduate assistant Jerry Carrillo came in their place. . . . Freshman Martin Smith, who played a team-high 27 minutes against New Mexico State, has averaged only 8.5 minutes the past two games. Cassidy said the lack of playing time last Saturday was a “matter of so many bodies” and a few mental mistakes by Smith. “He is a whale of an athlete and very bright, an engineering student,” Cassidy said. “Some games he’ll get a lot of time, others not as much. He is a freshman, his time will come.”. . . . Going into the game, the USA Today power rankings listed CSUN 256th out of 296 teams. Montana was ranked 194th and Saturday’s opponent, Montana State, was ranked 225th.