CSUN Makes Short Work of Texas Wesleyan : College basketball: Matadors put on a show in 92-62 victory.

Phi Slamma Jamma does not have a chapter at Cal State Northridge.

Why bother?

Coming into Tuesday night’s nonconference game against visiting Texas Wesleyan, center Peter Micelli led Northridge in dunks.

He had one. The other Matadors had zero. And the opponents had 21.

A gravity--defying team Northridge is not.

Make that was not.

Enter Texas Wesleyan, small-enrollment (1,600), small-time (NAIA) and small in stature (the Rams started four guards).

Enter showtime.

Northridge not only walloped the Rams, 92-62, the Matadors did it with flair.

There were five slams, including one ultra-dunk--a thunderous effort by freshman Josh Willis after a perfect lob pass from Ryan Martin--and a fairly spectacular near-miss--by 6-foot guard Andre Chevalier, who clanked his effort hard off the rim.

Even Pete Cassidy, Northridge’s ever-conservative coach, had to smile.

“A little bit of that is OK with me, if the crowd likes it,” he said. “It does bring the crowd into the game, and that makes things a little more exciting.”

The game itself, a mismatch, needed every extra dose of excitement that could be mustered.

Northridge shot a season-high 55.7% and forced 21 turnovers--17 of them steals. A little more playing time and a little closer game, and Matador guard James Morris might have had a quadruple-double. He finished with 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and six steals. His thefts fell one shy of the school record.

The victory was Northridge’s fifth in a row, and it evened the Matadors’ record, 7-7, for the first time since the school started NCAA Division I basketball competition in 1990.

So what if the victory happened to come against Texas Wesleyan (4-12)?

At least the outmanned Rams showed up, although half of them failed to make it on time.

Several Texas Wesleyan players got stuck in freeway traffic and were late returning from a tour at Universal Studios, forcing the game to start 20 minutes late.

“Being from Fort Worth, Texas, these guys don’t know what a parking lot looks like at five o’clock,” Rams Coach Charles Jolley said. “We have a couple of million cars on our Metroplex, but the cars move on it.”

Texas Wesleyan probably was safer on the freeway.

The shooting of Kenny Kenvin, who scored a game-high 25 points, kept the Rams within shouting distance--but only for a half.

Northridge scored on 10 of 11 possessions to start the second half. The only miss was the dunk by Chevalier, and Micelli took the blame for that, explaining that he threw his pass behind his streaking teammate.

Micelli himself had three slams, including a rim-rattling effort during a 22-11 run to begin the second half. He enjoyed that one so much, he paused to survey the scene below while hanging on the rim.

An official approached, ostensibly to warn Micelli about hanging on the rim, but the referee never got the chance.

As he opened his mouth, Micelli beat him to the punch. “I said, ‘Look, I don’t get that many dunks,’ ” said Micelli, who scored a team-high 17 points.

The referee smiled and backed off, but Cassidy cautioned Micelli about showing up the other team.

Still, even the coach chuckled about it afterward. “Didn’t you think that was exciting?” Cassidy said. “Pete thought it was.”