Northridge’s Optimism Falls by the Wayside in 82-61 Loss to Fullerton

After a strong effort against 10th-ranked Utah last weekend, the Cal State Northridge basketball team believed its winless days would soon be a memory.

But the Matadors took a giant step backward with a poor performance Saturday night in an 82-61 loss to Cal State Fullerton before 1,521 at Titan Gym.

It was the ninth consecutive loss for Northridge (0-9) and its 14th consecutive loss on the road dating to last season.

Northridge committed 17 turnovers (nine by front-court players), shot only 38% and was outrebounded, 47-28.

From beyond the three-point line, the Matadors missed 11 of their 15 attempts, including five misses by Ryan Martin and three by James Morris.

Overall, Martin missed six of seven shots to drop his field-goal percentage to 31% and Morris missed seven of 10 shots.

“Their quickness makes you hurry and when you get to hurrying your shots, you got problems,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said. “When things go bad, they go bad, don’t they?”

Fullerton (3-3) was even more careless with the ball but compensated with the high-percentage shooting of Bruce Bowen, Joe Small and Aaron Sunderland.

Bowen drove the lane at will, connecting on seven of 11 shots for a game-high 21 points. Small hit all four of his three-point shots for 16 points and Sunderland hit seven of 12 shots for 14 points.

From the outset, Northridge was in trouble.

Despite the pact they made after the Utah game to improve their intensity, the Matador starters showed no emotion and little enthusiasm at the outset.

“It was evident to me before the game started,” Cassidy said. “The demeanor in the locker room was sullen.”

“When you’re 0-8 you want to win, but it is tough to get motivated,” said reserve David Keeter, who scored a season-high 12 points.

Said team captain Keith Gibbs: “I thought we were getting ready in our own way, but we weren’t ready to play at all. Maybe I need to be more vocal on the bench (tonight) at San Diego.”

Keeter, Gibbs and point guard Andre Chevalier insisted that it had nothing to do with the absence of center Percy Fisher.

Earlier in the day, Cassidy suspended Fisher indefinitely for disciplinary reasons.

“You gotta work with what you got and I think (backup center) Brian (Kilian) played a helluva game,” Gibbs said.

When Kilian was out on rest breaks, 6-foot-5 Shelton Boykin played center.

Compounding matters, two key players, Chevalier and Gibbs, got into early foul trouble and were limited to 20 and 22 minutes, respectively.

“That just puts you in a hole,” Cassidy said. “It ties your hands even more than you were going in.”

Chevalier said: “There were a couple bad calls but you gotta live with them. When you’re sitting on the bench for 10 minutes with fouls, you get cold, but you gotta suck it up and come out and play.’

The Matadors played poorly in the first half, save for a little run that pulled them within three points with 2 minutes 41 seconds left. Fullerton answered with a 7-0 run en route to a 39-30 lead at intermission.

“We closed to three and the next thing you know they open it up again,” Cassidy said. “You spend yourself coming back. Frankly, they are bigger and quicker than us and they are at home. That is an awful lot to overcome.”

In the opening minutes of the second half, Northridge was outscored, 16-6.