CSUN Drops to 0-4 on Late 3-Point Shot

Northern Arizona guard Anthony Williams hit a three-point basket with one second left to hand Cal State Northridge a 74-71 loss in the Matadors’ home opener Friday night before 586 at Matador Gymnasium.

Williams, who had not scored from the field, drove the length of the floor and fired an off-balance shot over Keith Gibbs.

“I’m the hero for the day, I guess,” Williams said.

Northridge (0-4) lost its seventh consecutive game dating to last season.

The Matadors trailed by 13 points, 60-47, with 10 minutes 22 seconds remaining in the game. A 19-6 run tied the score, 66-66, with 3:47 left.

After a Lumberjack free throw, Northridge took a 71-67 lead on Ryan Martin’s three-point shot and Gibbs’ layup.

David Wolfe, Northern Arizona’s 6-foot-10 center, answered with consecutive eight-foot turnaround jump shots to tie it, 71-71, with 42 seconds remaining.

A miscommunication between Andre Chevalier and Gibbs on a back-door pass gave the Lumberjacks (2-1) the ball with six seconds remaining.

“I didn’t read him right and he didn’t read me right,” Gibbs said. “It is one of those things that happens in a game and it happened at a crucial time, but we didn’t lose the game at the end.

“We lost it in the beginning and the middle. We showed a lot of heart coming back, but we should have showed it the whole game.”

Northern Arizona turned the ball over seven times in the first seven minutes of the game, but CSUN could not take advantage.

It managed just one field goal and one free throw in that span.

“It is frustrating, isn’t it?” CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said. “We had wide-open shots that wouldn’t go down. It just blows me away.”

With three minutes left in the first half, the Lumberjacks led by nine points, but a driving layup by Gibbs and a follow shot by Chevalier cut the lead to five points, 38-33, at intermission.

In what has become a trend, Northridge was off-target and out of sync at the beginning of the second half.

A 15-5 run by Northern Arizona left the Matadors trailing, 53-38.

Sparked by two jump shots and a steal by Chevalier, Northridge answered with a 9-0 run that pulled it within six points, 53-47.

A three-point play by guard Benny Word gave the momentum back to the Lumberjacks, who pushed their advantage to 60-47.

But Northridge didn’t fold. On the Lumberjacks’ next two possessions, Gibbs blocked three shots--setting the tone for an intense seven-minute stretch that enabled CSUN to tie it, 66-66.

Gibbs scored twice and fed Shelton Boykin for a layup in the key stretch, John Moses sank three foul shots, Chevalier scored off a pass from David Swanson and Martin connected on a pair of three-point baskets.

After he missed six of seven shots in the first half, it was quite a comeback for Martin, who finished with 11 points.

“Every shooter doesn’t shoot well every game,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling it in the first half, but I was feeling it in the second half.”

Gibbs also made a comeback. After hitting just 26.9% of his shots in CSUN’s first three games, he hit nine of 12 for 21 points, which tied his career high. “I don’t care about my slump right now,” he said. “We should have won the game.”