CSUN Maintains the Winning Edge on Home Court

To Cal State Northridge, a road-weary independent in its first season of Division I battles, there is no place like home.

Winless in eight games on the road, the Matadors returned to the magic of the Matadome on Wednesday night to post their third victory and maintain an unblemished mark at Matador Gymnasium.

Northridge all but wrapped up its 69-64 triumph over Canisius College of Buffalo, N.Y., when Kyle Kerlegan hit a free throw with 20 seconds left to push the lead to three points.

Freshman Andre Chevalier had passed to a wide-open Todd Bowser for a basket underneath that gave CSUN a 64-60 advantage with 47 seconds to go.

The Golden Griffins’ 6-foot-11 center, Ed Book, answered with a basket eight seconds later, but Chevalier swished two free throws with 34 seconds remaining to maintain the four-point lead.

Canisius’ Brendan McCaffrey missed on a three-point attempt that might have made matters sticky and Kerlegan was immediately fouled.

Despite a cumbersome mask designed to protect his broken nose, he sank the second foul shot for a five-point advantage that the Golden Griffins (5-4) could not overcome.

Kerlegan finished with 11 points, Chevalier hit for a team-high 14, Bowser scored 10 and Shelton Boykin grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

“You gotta love playing at home,” said Chevalier, who also had four assists and two steals in a performance that was much sharper than the past two when he was weakened by the flu.

“I think the symptoms wore off yesterday,” Chevalier said.

A twisted ankle, suffered in the second half, had less of an effect.

“I guess I’ve learned to play with pain after being sick,” he said.

Teammate Keith Gibbs also played in pain.

Twice, in the final 1 minute 28 seconds, he dived on the court after the ball. The first time, his save enabled CSUN to retain possession and go ahead, 64-60 on Bowser’s shot.

The second time, with 40 seconds to go, he knocked the ball out of a Canisius player’s hand and out of bounds, preventing an easy shot.

Northridge showed patience and intelligence in its second close game of the season--it lost the other Saturday night, 69-61, to Weber State.

“Without question that paid off,” CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said.

“That’s experience. That is what a young team needs. Remember, although we have a lot of juniors, many are transfers, they have different backgrounds. This time, we knew to spread the defense and penetrate and dish off the open man.”

Like Gibbs, Boykin was particularly intense, grabbing rebounds, getting the ball to the open man, and taking high-percentage shots.

In the first half alone, he had seven rebounds. “If I come out rebounding, it gets me into my game,” the transfer from Valley College said.

“We started off well because we’ve been itching to play at home. I don’t want to speak prematurely, but we’re going to give Weber State a good butt-kicking on Saturday. We are a hard team to beat on our home court.”