CS Northridge Fades to 7th Consecutive Loss, 66-45

Cal State Northridge demonstrated again Friday night that it can compete with more established Division I basketball teams. But the Matadors have yet to beat those teams as evidenced by their 66-45 loss to Boise State before 5,781 at Boise State Pavilion.

“Sometimes you gotta turn a corner,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said.

The Matadors (0-7) trailed by only three points with 7 minutes 33 seconds to play, but their 19% second-half, field-goal shooting performance spelled their 10th consecutive loss dating to last season.

“We had good looks at the basket, but we had a lot of classic in-and-outs,” Northridge guard Brooklyn McLinn said. “We just have to knock ‘em down. We’re itching for a win. We are getting real close. You can feel it.”

McLinn’s three-point attempt with 7:30 left, spun around and around the rim and then out, denying Northridge the chance to tie the score at 44.

“That was a heartbreaker,” McLinn said with tears in his eyes.

The Broncos (4-3) shot 64.3% in the second half for their fourth consecutive win. Forward Keith Gibbs led Northridge in scoring with nine points and center Percy Fisher scored eight points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

“They are a very pesky outfit,” Boise State Coach Bobby Dye said of the Matadors. “You really have to have empathy for what they’re going through.”

A 13-foot jump shot by Gibbs that pulled Northridge within two points, 41-39, with 13:45 remaining was the Matadors’ last field goal.

During the ensuing drought, they missed 14 shots and turned the ball over six times.

“It’s hard to say why the shots stop going down,” Cassidy said. “I’m not sure all the shots we took were clean. I thought our guys got hammered pretty hard on a lot of shots.”

Meanwhile, Boise State outscored Northridge, 25-6.

Northridge couldn’t stop the Broncos’ 6-foot-9 center, Tanoka Beard, who scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.

The loss was similar to a 76-67 loss to Cal State Long Beach on Dec. 4 when CSUN did not score for 5:30 of the final 5:45.

“We’re down but we’re not to the point of giving up,” Gibbs said. “We’re just sick of losing.”

The Matadors trailed by only one point at halftime after a 16-7 run by reserves James Morris, John Moses, McLinn and David Keeter kept them in contention.

Morris scored on a driving layup, Moses scored on a reverse layup--his most aggressive play of the season--and a 10-foot jump shot, McLinn hit a pair of three-point baskets over the Bronco zone and Keeter dished out two assists and scored on a driving bank shot.

The reserves showed patience on offense and quick ball movement, attributes that were absent in Northridge’s most recent outing, a 67-48 loss to Montana.

“We took care of the ball, we had nice spacing and we covered down on their big guy, Beard,” McLinn said. “We just have to sustain it for 40 minutes.