CSUN Opens Basketball Season With Exhibition

A Cal State Northridge team with more size, depth and experience than any other in the school’s four-year history of NCAA Division I basketball will make its 1993-94 season debut tonight when it plays host to an opponent from Brisbane, Australia.

The exhibition, which starts at 7, is the first of two tuneups for the Matadors before they play Stanford on Nov. 26 in the first round of the Stanford Invitational. Northridge will play a home exhibition against the U.S. International Stars on Monday night.

The Matadors have four starters back from last season’s 10-17 team, including point guard Andre Chevalier.

Chevalier, a 6-foot senior from Cleveland High, needs 62 points to become the ninth player in Northridge’s 36-year basketball history to score 1,000 points in his career. His 13.9 scoring average led the Matadors last season. He holds school records with 346 assists and 129 steals.

Guard Brooklyn McLinn and postmen Peter Micelli and Chris Yard are Northridge’s other returning starters.

Shawn Stone, a 6-3 swingman, rounds out the starting lineup. He is a junior transfer who averaged 16.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last season for MiraCosta College.

Among other new faces is 6-11 Shane O’Doherty, a transfer from Riverside City College, the tallest player in school history.

Brent Lofton, a 6-5 transfer from Utah State who played at El Camino Real, will not play for the Matadors because of an illness that kept him out of practice this week. Josh Willis, a 6-6 sophomore, also might sit out the exhibition because of illness.