SPOTLIGHT

Kyle Kerlegan: Northridge

Basketball: Guard

Senior: 6-foot-2

What was Kyle Kerlegan thinking just before Aaron Bell, Weber State’s 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward, ran him over?

“I was kind of wondering that too,” Kerlegan said with a laugh.

Actually, Kerlegan was thinking that he was taking one for the team, but Bell was not assessed a charging foul; Kerlegan, the player on the floor, was labeled the aggressor.

“I’m pretty sure I was there first,” Kerlegan said.

“I had no idea he was going to take off like that. I knew he was going to jump, a layup or something. I didn’t know he dunked until I got back to the bench.”

It took Kerlegan five minutes to return to the bench because when Bell made contact, Kerlegan heard a crack.

“I knew my nose was broken,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t get up.”

Eight minutes later, Kerlegan was back on the court, launching shots from three-point range and outhustling bigger players for rebounds.

“I had two big pieces of cotton shoved up my nose,” he said. “It hurt, but . . . I kind of forgot about it.”

Kerlegan is reminded of the pain when he breathes hard--the injury makes breathing difficult--and when he dons a protective mask. Unfortunately, the mask restricts his vision.

“I can see to the outside with one eye but not over my nose with the other eye,” Kerlegan said.

True to his gunner personality, Kerlegan claims his shooting is not suffering.

“I’m shooting all right because the basket is still in front of me.”

Kerlegan, who scored 11 points Wednesday night against Canisius College, is the Matadors’ leading scorer, averaging 13 points a game, and is tied for second in assists with 19.

He also leads CSUN in three-point baskets with 37, including a school single-game record of 10 on a school single-game record of 21 attempts in the opener against Colorado.

Kerlegan, the leading three-point shooter in the nation last season with 145 baskets in 29 games for Canada College in Redwood City, has a simple philosophy on playing with pain:

“I just want to play, so I play.”