Cal State Northridge’s 1st Win as Welcome as a Breath of Fresh Air : College basketball: After three close losses, Matadors weather playing at altitude and defeat Northern Arizona, 76-67.

Cal State Northridge basketball players have their altitude information all wrong.

As residents of the smog belt, they are expected to take a few deep breaths of Northern Arizona’s fresh, thin mountain air, and then cough, wheeze and roll over, exhausted.

No one, but no one, should be able to play 31 minutes of hard-charging basketball and still have enough left to score 10 points in the final six minutes.

And a player with asthma? Why even show up? So much as a brisk walk sets the air passages on fire.

But Northridge, with guards Andre Chevalier and Ryan Martin leading the way, came anyway. And the Matadors left the Skydome with a 76-67 victory, their first of the season.

Chevalier, playing all but three minutes, scored a season-high 22 points and also had six assists.

The asthmatic Martin, coughing only during breaks in the action, played 25 minutes and scored 13 points, including a trio of three-point baskets in a six-minute stretch during the second half.

As a result, it was Northern Arizona, not Northridge, gasping at the end of Wednesday night’s nonconference game before 1,021.

“Believe me, we were tired,” Chevalier said. “But we wanted to win so we had to suck it up.”

Leading, 69-59, with 3 minutes 13 seconds to play, Northridge had its advantage cut to 69-65, with 1:30 to play. But the Matadors made seven of eight free throws in the final minute.

Chevalier made all nine of his free throws, including four in the last minute. “It was good to get that monkey off our back,” he said of Northridge’s first win after three losses. “We didn’t want to do the same thing as last year.”

Northridge, which will open action in the Loyola Marymount tournament Friday against the host Lions, lost its first 10 games last season before winning 11 of its final 18.

After the Matadors’ three close losses, the wait seemed almost as long this season.

“They were playing good teams very tough,” said Harold Merritt, Northern Arizona’s coach. “That is a road-tough team, even though they haven’t won many ballgames.”

The score was tied three times and the lead swapped hands five times in the first 13 minutes of the second half before Chevalier, a 6-foot junior, started ducking inside the key.

Frustrated by a lack of motion from teammates without the ball, he aggressively punched the ball through Northern Arizona’s 1-3-1 zone on his own.

With 6:17 remaining, he drove up the heart of the Lumberjack defense to score on an off-balance shot from five feet and then converted a free throw for a three-point play, putting Northridge ahead to stay, 61-59.

With 5:26 left, Chevalier scored on another drive.

With 5:05 to play, he connected on a pair of free throws.

With 4:22 to play, he skipped a bounce pass to Chris Yard, who cashed in with a left-handed layup.

And all of a sudden, Northridge led, 67-59.

“He knows he has to step up as the point guard and leader,” Martin said of Chevalier. “Andre, when he creates like that, it opens up everything. And he’s a good free-throw shooter too, so when he’s on the line it’s two points.”

Martin, a sophomore reserve, also played well. When Northern Arizona’s zone was giving Northridge fits early in the second half, his long-distance jump shots gave the Matadors breathing room.

“He gave us a big-time boost,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said.

Martin said he, like Chevalier, was tiring as the game wore on. It didn’t show.

“He sparked us,” Chevalier said of Martin. “His jumpers were hitting nothing but net tonight.”

While Chevalier and Martin gave the Lumberjacks (1-2) fits from afar, Yard, a 6-6 junior, recorded season highs with 18 points and 14 rebounds in 35 minutes.

Yard had 11 points and eight rebounds in the first half to offset poor shooting by Northridge guards, who were a combined one of 11 from three-point range in the opening stanza.

Northern Arizona hurt Northridge in the early going by crashing the offensive boards. The Lumberjacks scored four rebound baskets in the game’s first 10 minutes.

“The first half was horrendous,” Cassidy said. “They penetrated and got in there at will. I mentioned at halftime that perhaps that was our problem.”

Forward Demetreus Robbins led Northern Arizona with 15 points and nine rebounds. Guard John Rondeno added 11 points.